Let’s take a quick tour. The first-generation web, Web 1.0 (prior to 1998), with its text-only web pages, centered around the “web browser” (application host). Web 2.0 (2002-2007) is centered around interaction (application dynamics and logic). The Web 2.0 trend is bloated with API’s, mashups, Ajax, wikis, social-networking etc., but it does not expose the data itself. In the coming time, we’ll gradually shift to Web 3.0, the third-generation web, probably the final frontier in the decomposition of monolithic nature of the web into discrete “data” components.
Today, when someone mentions that xyz.com is a new “web service”, it doesn’t actually mean that its a true “web service” but rather a “web-based service”. However, Web 3.0 will bring true “web services” into the mainstream. Web 3.0 is about exposing the data model on the web. It transforms web pages to (reusable) web services, and thereby transforming the Web into a database. Web 3.0 is going to deliver a new generation of business applications. And I must say that RSS will be a driving factor in this process. RSS will lay the pipeline for the new service architecture.
Update: Read about Web4.0 on Seth Godin’s blog.