While Web 2.0 has been a huge hit with consumers, some businesses have been much slower to embrace it. Many companies, however, are now realizing the great potential of Web 2.0 and how Web 2.0 services such as YouTube, Twitter, and SlideShare can provide value to their organizations. See how businesses can exploit the power of Web 2.0 services while simultaneously improving workplace relationships. Empower your employees to share information that helps generate sales leads, aids in recruitment, and assists in strengthening your company’s brand, image, and corporate identity. Explore business-oriented Web 2.0 tools such as LinkedIn and CrunchBase and the Web services and APIs that many of these tools offer, allowing their benefits to be incorporated into other applications.

Web 2.0 tools

Web 2.0 is a somewhat controversial term that is generally used to describe the shift in Web design and development patterns from static, singular, and flat Web pages to dynamic, interactive, and collaborative Web applications. For many, Web 2.0 is the most important collection of concepts when it comes to software and the Internet, but for others it is simply a product of marketing hype. Some say that Web 2.0 ideas have been around since the mid-1990s and point to the likes of Amazon and Yahoo!, who have been providing services that boast the characteristics of so-called Web 2.0 services since 1995 (see Figure 1). The simple fact of the matter is, no matter what your take on the term and its concepts, it is important that you and your business are aware of it and know how to best use it.
Figure 1. Amazon customer reviews and star ratings

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