Every day, consumers from all over the globe are uploading, transferring and downloading valuable data online. Web 2.0 has become a vastly growing global resource for people to connect with each other and gain instantaneous information.

Google is one example of a service that has transformed dramatically over the last decade. It primarily began as a unique way for consumers to search through the Internet using special text-matching techniques. However, over the years it has grown to encompass other technologies and services, such as e-mailing, online mapping, social networking and video sharing. These new services have only been made possible by taking advantage of Google’s enormous range of data collected and stored over the years.

Above is an image I produced using TouchGraph.com doing a search for ‘google’, which visually displays the major links associated with Google.com. You can try it out yourself!

The Google information database is extremely valuable, with each new web application heavily reliant on this information. Effective database management has become an absolute necessity for the company and the data it holds has become extremely valuable. With out this data, Google’s services wouldn’t exist. This is also a major challenge for any new comer to the market as they will be starting off with an ‘empty’ database as such.

As Web 2.0 sites grow and develop, their data will become increasingly important. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia place less emphasis on providing content themselves, and a move to user-generated content. There is a far greater focus on the conservations between users, as opposed to providing a place for advertisers to promote brands. Between 700,000 and 1.3 million blogs are made daily and according to Google, a new blog post is being created every second of every day (James, 2009).

There have been many ethical and legal questions raised regarding the website’s privacy settings. Facebook has been featured on many news programs both locally and internationally, with people questioning whether its privacy settings are indeed safe and confidential for each user. Clearly, being in control of this large range of data is a huge and challenging responsibility.

Since many Web 2.0 services thrive on the participation between users, data storage services become more valuable. Consumers depend on these sites for a safe, fun and interactive environment to connect with other people and information. If the Web 2.0 site fails to provide this service, then the demand will reduce. It is becoming more apparent nowadays that the data found on a site is just as important as the actual software. Google has recently shown this to be the case with their investment to DigitalGlobes imagery and geodata. As technology progresses, we demand more than what the Intel Inside chip has to offer. People now have an interactive environment, where communication is fast, simple and reliable.

James, L April 2009, ‘Should you advertise on social networking websites?’, World Advertising Research Centre, viewed 10 July 2009