Remember Web 2.0? That was when the internet stopped being a digital billboard and started feeling like a place you could actually do things post comments, share photos, upload videos. Sounds simple now, but back then? Revolutionary. Suddenly, sites like YouTube and Flickr and later Facebook turned passive readers into active creators. The web wasn’t just something you looked at it was something you shaped.
Of course, that meant websites had to step up. Real-time updates, social features, user-generated content none of that was possible with the old static pages. Tech like Flash and AJAX made it happen, letting you interact with sites without those annoying page reloads. And for the first time, designers really started thinking about usability: How do you make this stuff intuitive for everyone, not just the tech crowd?
But let’s be honest Web 2.0 was just the warm-up. Today, interacting with tech means talking to your phone, swiping through feeds curated by algorithms, or even stepping into virtual worlds with AR and VR. Flash? Ancient history replaced by faster, leaner tools like HTML5 and modern JavaScript frameworks. And forget being chained to a desktop: Now, every device—from your watch to your fridge needs an interface that just works, instantly and seamlessly.
The big difference? Web 2.0 made the internet participatory. Today’s tech makes it anticipatory—always there, always adapting, fitting into your life without you even noticing.