What the heck is Web 3.0 and why should I care?

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The year 2012 will be the coming of age for Web 3.0. A quick look at the chart below will show you the rapid evolution of the world wide web from 'brochure-ware' to 'intelligence-ware'.

One of the best ways to explain this evolution in easy-to-understand language is using a scenario. Suppose in each of the years 1996, 2006 and 2012 you decided to purchase a new Ferrari. Here's how the web would help in each instance:

1. In Web 1.0, pre-Google days, you would pretty much have to know the URLs that could show you what you need to know. Only the most advanced dealers would have a web presence and the information you gleaned would be wildly skewed toward their brands and models. Car And Driver wasn't online in 1996 and there were no blogs.

2. In Web 2.0 you would search "Ferrari" and you'd come up with all dealers, whether they're in Buffalo or Tokyo. You'd also find user reviews, auto expert opinions, blogs, You Tube videos, information on government rebates and stimulus packages for Ferrari purchasers, new car loans and just a huge hodgepodge of information...some of it meaningful to your search, some of it not.

3. In Web 3.0 you text a friend from your mobile phone with a message like "I'm thinking about a Ferrari...know anybody who has one?" Search engines would pick up on your text and deliver to you, with your permission, a list of local Ferrari dealers and contact info, testimonials from owners in your area and banks who specialized in high-end car loans.

In other words, Web 3.0 adds intelligence to your text, search or email to anticipate your next thoughts and next steps. It will then attempt to guide you to relevant, highly targeted information in case you decide to move on to next steps.The various shops, banks and other commercial enterprises will be presented according to the web's assessment of how relative their messaging is to your particular situation and, or course, how much they spend with the search engines. The tricky part in all this is that it must be permission based marketing. Getting a bunch of annoying pop-ups while you're texting, Facebook-ing or Twitter-ing will likely turn you away from those vendors, won't it?

Many, many companies are barely investing in the most basic target marketing and lead generation tools offered by Web 2.0. Marketing departments, or what's left of them, at mid-size and larger companies, are struggling just to learn about using social media for marketing. Most marketing people working for companies are stretched way too thin to even think about the implications of Web 3.0 and are setting their companies up to get blindsided by that one competitor who gets it and puts in the time and effort to wield it effectively.

The big difference between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, that we can see, is that in Web 2.0 the user must exert effort to customize the information needed for his/her particular purchase criteria. In Web 3.0 the information is automatically customized for the user's purchase criteria because the user has been feeding the web personal information, including shopping habits, for years.

And that has HUGE implications for marketing and sales.

The following chart is courtesy of Digital Inspiration.