As we perused some of our regular sites this morning (yesterday we talked about how we need to get with the times and get an RSS reader instead of actually visiting websites), we stumbled across Seth Godin’s Web 2.0 Traffic Watch List. The number one site on the list of 937 sites is MySpace, which was a little suprising. It would have been difficult to have included MySpace in any list of Web 2.0 companies that we created, but the Wikipedia definition, one that we link to on more than one occassion, for Web 2.0 companies clearly states Web 2.0 is a term to describe ‘Internet-based services that let people collaborate and share information online in a new way—such as social networking sites.’ So really, what is Web 2.0?

Of course there is huge debate regarding the overused term, but what is considered to be in a new way? On the Valleywag website, there’s a vote over who’s the hottest Web 2.0 lady. This type of collaboration and sharing of information is obviously not new, but what if the whole thing had been done in Ajax. IfÂ? there was anÂ? Ajax rating site, would that be a Web 2.0 company? It would be if MySpace is.

The problem with this next generation of web applications, or Web 2.0 sites, is how loosely the term is being applied. Classmates was started in 1995 and is basically the same as MySpace, isn’t it? True, the site does offer some level of freedom for the user to create their own space, but is that really what Web 2.0 is all about? It’s a piece of the puzzle, but that alone shouldn’t put them in that category. But, that would probably be the case for several of the companies that have made it onto that list.Â? Sites like this oneÂ? are definitely good to have, but it’s tough for it to be really effective unless there’s a clearer idea of what a Web 2.0 website really is.

It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. The term is so overused that it hasÂ? probably lost most of its meaning to anyone closely associated with the Industry.Â? At the end of the day, how sites perform compared to each other probably doesn’t matter all that much. It’s important, butÂ? being profitable might be more important.

Check out this article for more info on what is web 2.0.

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