After browsing LinkedIn for a while to get the feel of the website and what it exactly offers I’ve noticed that a number of Web Designers have put “experienced in Web 2.0″ in their profiles/CV’s. For me, this is one of the worst moves you can make when adding things to any document detailing the work you’ve accomplished.

To make this worse I recently helped design and develop a website for some friends working on some coursework for university. In their Project Brief they outlined a desire to make the website like a Web 2.0 website, to which the lecturer asked what they meant, immediately leading to a load of bewildered faces. Again, they asked for my advice regarding how to explain Web 2.0 to whoever the work was for, to which I answered:

What’s the point?!

Loads of designers and developers are flaunting their ability to work on websites that somehow quality for this “Web 2.0″ thing, and clients are scratching their heads wondering why this is of any use to them. The average client that only wants their business to succeed won’t care about these buzzwords at all, and if you’re looking to lead them down this road without justification you’re taking an unprofessional amount of creative control for yourself.

Web 2.0 is just geeky web people talk, that’s all. Your Web 2.0 nonsense isn’t going to matter to anyone outside of the web circles because they’re not designers or developers!

As a Designer/Developer your sole job is to create a website for a user based to their specifications, utilising your experience to create the most suitable website for their needs. If you want to dress it up with rounded borders, flashy slogans without vowels and user-generated content then it’d better be in the Requirements Specification (or similar document), otherwise you’re just digging an almighty hole for yourself and your client.

If you really want to tell your client what Web 2.0 is then this is the best way to say it.

“Web 2.0 is just a marketing buzzword”

The people that are promoting this slogan for new websites with flashy bits that users contribute to are marketing types and news websites. Naturally, once the mainstream users start to get wind of these ideas developers and webmasters get all giddy with excitement and decide that the people have spoken and this is the best idea ever.

Please, do not bother coming up with a grand explanation of Web 2.0 to someone who wants a profitable business. These things are best left to those websites aiming to become the next big social media website.