Web 2.0 Interview Preparation Guide

Web 2.0 is a Soft concept – it is not a standard, or a formula or a definition – which would have been a lot easier to explain.

Refers to the originating source of information published through RSS. Comparable to the broadcasting tower of a TV station.

Utilities that allow RSS feeds to be converted and displayed on web pages or in news feed aggregators (software that displays RSS feeds). Comparable to TV set displaying the broadcast of a TV station.

Open Source software is free to use and customize and the approach offers full accessibility to the source code. The decisions and the direction in the softwares development are determined by the community.

We build iPhone apps for our clients. We have built apps in almost all product categories that exist in the app store. The most popular ones are auction engines, e-commerce apps, navigation apps and iPhone apps for entertainment. We also port applications such as games designed for other platforms, onto the iPhone

There is nothing fundamentally different in the technology that enables blogging as a blog is very similar to other forms of on-line publishing or web sites. However, the blogger makes his or her choice of template as a pre-existing product instead of having to design the look and feel of the page from basics. In the same way that Desk Top Publishing software revolutionised print publication, where content can be dropped into ready made templates, bloggers can put their content into pages that are designed, published and hosted without the blogger needing to know anything about design, marking-up or other technical matters. One major difference, however, is the possibility of adding comments. This was rather difficult technically to achieve in the early days of the web and became more common with the rise of fora and guest books. However, where a forum was usually moderated, a blog is less likely to be so. This encapsulates the definition of Web 2.0. It isn’t so very different from Web 1.0, just much easier for individuals with no expertise to get involved. From the point of view of internet safety, however, the ease of access and use means that it is a technology that enables the dissemination of information and views that might prove undesirable for the audience and the author.

Podcasting is a way to share multimedia files over the internet for playback on mobile devices or computers. The term podcast can mean either the broadcast itself or the method of delivery. Anyone with access to the internet, a microphone and simple computer can create an audio podcast and make it available online. It is possible to subscribe to podcasts so that they will update automatically on a computer or mobile device. In that way, the subscriber will constantly receive new broadcasts as they are updated and produced. It is possible to find server space to store the file (usually mp3)

Wikis are web pages that allow readers to interact and collaborate with others as such pages can be edited or added to by anyone. Perhaps the most well-known example of a wiki is Wikipedia, a collaborative encyclopaedia which now includes more up to date entries than the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Social Bookmarking allows users to share their user-generated internet favourites or bookmarks. Traditionally users would have a list of favourite websites as part of their own internet browser. Now, social bookmarking allows these lists to be shared easily so that anyone can use them. The content can be classified using tags to make them easier to search and use. http://del.icio.us (owned by Yahoo) is a good example of social bookmarking and shows users how many other people have saved a particular site.

Photo Sharing is a popular tool which allows users to share photographs with family and friends. The most widely used site is called Flickr http://www.flickr.com which allows users to post photos and then invite others to view them either individually or as a slide show. Notes and tags can be added to each photo and others can leave comments too.