The Changing face of the Web: A Review of Technological Advancements

Abstract—The evolution of web technologies can be seen most optimally as a co-evolutionary process driven by technological innovation and adaptation, economic gains and commoditization of the internet, and social engagement and contribution. Within this review, we follow the progression from static, documentcentric Web 1.0 (”read-only”) to Web 2.0 collaborative (”readwrite”), to smart and semantic Web 3.0. We critique the methods employed in doing this work, such as large-scale web crawls, qualitative surveys, and software re-engineering. One is the transition from centralized, page-based paradigms to decentralized, serviceoriented paradigms that potentially facilitate continuous growth but are impactful for security, privacy, and instability. Finally, we mention some of the visions of internet evolution such as the Symbiotic Web (Web 4.0) and even more speculatively the Independent Existence of self-aware intelligence (Web 6.0). Index Terms—The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Communication between machines (M2M), Content created by users (UGC), Web-Based Services, Re-engineering, Analytics of Data