What is Web 3.0? (What content people need to know)
What is Web 3.0?
Ok. Hang on one sec. To understand Web 3.0, we need to take a step back and recognise how we got to where we are.
For many years, the web was really only about documents, links, and searching. That was it. That, in essence, was Web 1.0.
You could post a web page, and then link around that webpage to other web pages.
Webpages were static and essentially a 'broadcast' of information (but this was a huge deal at the time).
We could type in our searches, and then jump around between documents on sites that originated from anywhere in the world…
For over a decade, websites were pretty much just 'read-only' (like print); all but for a few hyperlinks here and there. The problem with this was that any organization that did have the resources and skills to build a website could only publish content. There was no means for any kind of two-way communication, so building relationships online was hard.
Web 2.0 emerged when the web evolved into something more. We started having ideas about ‘creating identities’ and began to see websites pop up where the user essentially stopped being a ‘data point’.
We were still typing in our searches and reading content, but the difference was that the website medium began ‘accepting’ input too.
Now, we could actually register for a profile or account and have a voice ourselves. It meant that a formerly ‘anonymous user’ now had an online identity.
Now we're all publishers, we can all have followers, and we can all get our voice out there.
What is a ‘post-search’ world?
If there’s one thing that I learned from listening to strategist and content expert Noz Urbina talk about this, it’s that when it comes to online habits, even though much is still evolving around us — we're still searching, we're still reading screens, and we're still typing.
Usability and user experience will always march toward human ergonomics; in other words, “what is comfortable for our brains and bodies” does not consist of entering a search query and then scanning through webpages to extract the answer.
“The future is in contextual content and conversational content where we get the answer we want served directly to us in the natural flow of what we're doing.
“At the most basic level, that could be an AI that extracts the actual answer from one or more pages, but at the more sophisticated, it is feeds AI assistants that have the best answers ready to go, or proactively served up based on our behaviours, which gives me answers just based on contextual clues (location, past behaviours, current task).”
— Noz Urbina
Back in 2014, The New York Times’ Innovation Report recognized that user behaviours were moving to a ‘post-search world’. Even then, people wanted the content to ‘come to them’ as opposed to having to seek it out — and they believed that, eventually, users would come to expect that worthwhile content should reach them without the need for a manual search of any kind.
And how would this happen? Through that user’s feeds, recommended content, alerts, and subscriptions… all the user would need to do is signal their interests and what’s most relevant to them, upfront.
How the content and data world exploded
You only have to look at the continual surge in the number of martech organizations to get a basic idea of exactly how much it's exploded.
In 2011, and just a few years before the New York Times report, chiefmartec.com’s editor Scott Brinker published this map of the marketing technology landscape:
Scott Brinker's map of the marketing technology landscape (2011)
At that time, it contained around 150 vendors. Fast forward a decade or so, and due to demand causing a 'gluttony of supply', the landscape swelled to over 8,000 martech solutions from around the globe:
Nowadays, the breadth of solutions and categories in Scott Brinker's map of the marketing technology landscape from 2020 is positively overwhelming.
Ok, so what is Web 3.0?
Back to the here and now then. Web 3.0 is where the web becomes user-controlled, composable, and immersive. This is sometimes also referred to as 'The Semantic Web'.
"The Semantic Web is not a separate Web, but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning; better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation."
— Tim Berners-Lee
'Ancient web history' as described in its simplest form by Noz Urbina, where the journey from Web 1.0 to Web 3.0 becomes increasingly more engaging. (Slide by Noz Urbina)
Back to the future
Here’s a great point that Noz highlighted in one of his webinars on the subject, and that is:
“…talking about and trying to predict the future is hard when you’re trying to think what the future of the web really looks like.”
He says that this is because we tend to default to constructing any vision of our future using today's parameters.
For example, this cover of Byte Magazine from 1981 suggests what the future of computing might be:
It's all about parameters. For example, in 1981 it was difficult to imagine a future of technology without floppy disks.
It might be something we’d laugh at now (notice the floppy disk at the side of the watch), but our thinking at the time was, “Yes, we can have a tiny computer on our wrist. But because it’s 1981, there’s still an assumption that you’d have to slide a disk into it”.
Equally, if we were going to try to think up a piece of new technology in 2024, we would no doubt think about it whilst applying what we know about the technological environment we live in today.
This is so fundamental to the way that we approach any new technology. In other words, it's very hard for us to envision something until someone shows us the ‘art of the possible’.
For instance, the Internet of Things (IoT) is, to a great extent, already with us. It's one of the first Web 3.0 phenomena we've all started to participate in.
Don't think so?
Think of voice assistance, smartwatches, assisted car parking, and so on. It’s integrated into our daily lives that we don’t give it a second thought.
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." — Mark Weiser, Chief Scientist at Xerox PARC
And Web 3.0 is already unlocking new ways for content to be used when it comes to, for example, training multiple people to use complex systems or equipment at work — especially equipment used in perilous environments.
For example, an organization might need to train 40 rail engineers, but it’s clearly not viable to allow someone new, let alone 40 people, to wander around railway lines because of the obvious health and safety risks.
That’s where training with virtual reality that utilizes Web 3.0 can be of great use.
Key Web 3.0 technologies to understand
Blockchain (aka ‘trustless’ system)
Blockchain refers to a system that is trusted over trusting individuals.
So, for example, instead of having to worry about whether you're managing someone else’s information well, because the system is shared by everybody, and is visible to everybody, everyone can trust that one system implicitly. That is what a blockchain is - it’s a form of distributed ledger.
It’s most well-known in association with cryptocurrency, but it can also be used for the buying and selling of digital collectibles, for example.
Non-fungible token (NFT)
NFT is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain. Ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner. This allows NFTs to be sold and traded with transparency.
Noz described them as ‘digital collectables’, which is a simpler way to understand the concept.
Semantic content and data
In the context of the web, ‘semantic’ simply translates as ‘meaningfully tagged’. It’s structured data, and Google is a master at using this in its search results for users.
In the example below, we can see that Google is using related content to the search for ‘Reagan film’ to display key related information as results — such as official images from the film, the film trailer, showtimes at a local cinema, cast details, a synopsis of the film, plus some critic reviews.
Screenshot image taken by the author
IoT
IoT is mostly already with us. It describes a network of physical objects where each one is embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet.
Augmented reality (AR) / Virtual reality (VR) / Extended reality (XR)
Like IoT, AR, VR, and XR have been coming for quite a long time. For example, many of us use car parking assistance through an AR function native to our cars. It works so well, that we don't even think about it anymore.
Google Maps is another example of AR, where an overlay of key information and/or data is added to regular map views by Google.
XR is simply an umbrella term that covers VR, AR, and mixed reality (MR).
The Metaverse
The Metaverse is an example of VR in action. It's a shared, open world that offers access to virtual 3D spaces and environments created by its users.
Digital twins
“A digital twin is a virtual model designed to accurately reflect a physical object.” — IBM definition
I’ll use the chemical plant example Noz presented in one of his talks as an example of ‘digital twins’ in action.
By using sensors in a chemical plant, it allows a computerized map to be created and remain updated with real-time information. This computerized map is the chemical plant's digital twin.
The digital twin can be used to help control and monitor day-to-day functions at the chemical plant. It can also be used for simulations (for example, for training purposes) and investigating 'what if' scenarios for crisis planning purposes ("What if a leak was to happen at the plant?").
Web 3.0 and the customer experience: What content people need to know
All of these Web 3.0-related technologies mean that we have to ensure our organization's technology and thinking (as well as our own) aligns with customer experience.
And with Web 3.0, there will be far more for content people to take into account. We’ll need to be considering aspects like:
Where we can add value
How we can break down working silos to access the very broad skillset this kind of world requires (i.e. it’s not so much about specialized teams)
How we can govern all this stuff in an omnichannel way
How we can make such a complex environment manageable by documenting standards and making sure all content and assets are cross-platform and categorized
Our organization's Web 3.0 tech stack (microservices, APIs, headless, etc.)
Web 3.0 will eventually become a technology that also ‘disappears’
Do you remember the Mark Weiser quote from earlier?
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear..."
When we think about how long it takes us to adopt digital technologies and adapt things for the web, we can look at content as an example.
It has arguably taken 15 to 20 years for many organizations to notice the importance of content — and make it a serious priority area within their business.
The barrier comes when users don’t understand how something like The Metaverse or digital twins applies to them — and in what ways it could add value to their lives.
Noz believes that it’s only when leading brands and voices come forward with relatable case studies that user understanding on a large scale will start to accelerate.
I'll leave you with this quote from Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web…
"The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past." — Tim Berners-Lee
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