The term Web 2.0 has been around for a few years now and I remember when first heard about it, I had the exact same feeling about it as I had when I first heard about Microsoft .NET. Both terms were too abstract and no one/website had a coherent and concise explanation of what it was or what it did or more importantly how it can be implemented in actual software development. (read .net white paper to see what I mean)

And in my opinion if you can’t explain something (in this context technology) in a understandable manner, it is usually indication of it being a marketing ploy (since it either useless or is far from being ready for the market so whoever is trying to promote it is also trying to give themselves an option to decide it later). There are other reasons behind vague tech terms as well and Joel attributes it to Architecture Astronauts.

Here is a 4.5 minute visual presentation of what this so called web 2.0 is for those who are still unclear about it (hope you are a fast reader).