What is the Social Web?

he Early Days of the Internet and Web 1.0:

When the Internet first became a household word, the World Wide Web was very one-sided with most websites providing static information. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, the Internet remained fairly one-sided with primary offerings including informational and transactional (online shopping) websites.
The Internet Becomes Social with Web 2.0:

The second generation of the Internet came about in the early 2000s and was called Web 2.0 or the social web. No longer were people satisfied being talked at. Instead, they wanted to join the conversation and have a say in the World Wide Web. The evolution of the social web began with user-generated content. Personal websites, forums and online chats became just a few of the standard features of Web 2.0 and made way for blogs, social networking, social bookmarking and more.
Popular Tools of the Social Web:

    * Blogs
    * Social bookmarking: Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc.
    * Social networking: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
    * Groups: Google, Yahoo, etc.
    * File sharing: YouTube, Napster, etc.
    * Wikis: Wikipedia, Google's Knol
    * Virtual worlds: SecondLife
    * Instant messaging
    * Online chat
    * Forums
      Blogging and the Social Web:

      Blogging is an integral part of the social web. A blog's success relies heavily on its community of readers. That community is typically built through online networking and promotion through the various tools of the social web. From bookmarking important posts to participating in relevant forums, a blogger's online activities within the social web can make or break a blog's success.