Relevance of Web 2.0 debated

International research group Gartner is touting Web 2.0 as a business tool for the long run, but Internet Solutions Web 2.0 product specialist Jeff Fletcher has a more jaded view.

Gartner analyst Charles Abrams says traditional enterprises are failing to realise the long-term business benefits of Web 2.0 and are putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Abrams says many traditional businesses that stand to benefit from the new business processes, communities and business models enabled by the Web 2.0 movement, will miss out because these simply do not realise its long-term business potential.

"For some, it's simply a case of once bitten, twice shy. Massive investments during the first Internet revolution proved unprofitable for many enterprises and they are nervous of making the same mistakes again," he says.

However, Fletcher, whose brief is to examine new technology for the company, says many Web 2.0 companies are trying to ride a wave of "irrational exuberance" with the aim of being bought out by some other larger company.

"We have seen Google on the acquisition trail and it has paid some premium prices for companies that really have not proved themselves. It seems some investors have forgotten what caused the dot-com boom to bust," he says.

Abrams also says many traditional enterprises view Web 2.0 purely as a technological phenomenon, but what they fail to see is that, unlike Web 1.0, success with Web 2.0 depends less on new and untested technology investments and more on reaping the power of new forms of business models, newly-enabled online communities and collaborative processes.

Another reason Gartner cited for the unwillingness to fully embrace Web 2.0 is the perception that the transformational technology associated with Web 2.0 (for example, Ajax or Really Simple Syndication) are primarily consumer-facing and, therefore, will fail to meet the stability, reliability and security requirements of corporate IT.

Fletcher says Web 2.0 technology, such as Ajax, may have relevance to some companies, especially those, such as publishing houses, that have to update information regularly to subscribers.

"However, for a bank there may be less relevance, especially the community aspects. Looking back over the past 15 years, those companies that did not embrace the community aspects of the Internet because they felt it was not particularly relevant to them have not done better or worse than those that did," he says.