WordPress themes and web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a concept that arguably does not exist. Despite this somewhat inconvenient fact, WordPress with its customisable themes, embody what is in essence web 2.0.

Over at www.dreamtemplate.com, there is an article in its blog section called “Web 2.0 and web design”, in which it explores the design concepts behind Web 2.0. This is well worth a read. If you think about WordPress, it has become the embodiment of web 2.0. Therefore when you are customising or choosing a WordPress theme, by looking at web 2.0 design concepts, could help you get the most out of your WordPress theme.

Social networking on WordPress is arguably better than facebook from an industry and interest perspective, as it has tighter scope to connect people in similar industries and interests. This is most noticeable on adding posts to discussion blogs and discussion forums. In fact this element which is also a major feature on myspace.com, has become one of the benefits of blogging, from an SEO perspective. It is no secret that the number of inbound and outbound links a site has, pushes your WordPress blog up the rankings on search engines such as Google.

The customisable WordPress theme is another outstanding development in web 2.0. The creative element to this has led to a new industry of creative themes being developed and sold on for cash. This website makes money from doing this, as do hundreds of others.

Another significant step WordPress themes and web 2.0 has brought about is indeed the blog. Everyone has a say now through their blog. Many say this is a long time in coming and is only doing what the web was, and should have been doing years ago. They are probably right, but nonetheless, now that it is here, everyone has a blog. It is strange to think that nobody used the word blog until a few years ago in this way. Now the concept of “Joe Bloggs”, to mean the man or woman in the street, has faded away.

Perhaps what was not so foreseen was the money a good blog can generate both directly, and indirectly. If SEO’d, they can be great traffic pullers. This is why nearly every company has a blog for that very reason. The other fact is that everyone likes an interesting blog, and so these kind of blogs attract people. This in turn leads to advertising revenue being generated, which lets face it, is always nice for the recipient of it.

As blogs can feature video streaming, WordPress themes and web 2.0 can notch this up as a success. The video blog is becoming more popular and more useful. A demonstration can speak a thousand words.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with web 2.0, here is a definition of it, as stated on wikipedia.com.

“Web 2.0″ refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”

In fact Wikipedia can be said to be a product of Web 2.0.

Whether or not web 2.0 really exists there can be no doubt that WordPress, and its customization capabilities, have embodied every idea and concept behind web 2.0. If you look at the definition shown in Wikipedia, nearly everyone aspect of web 2.0 is in WordPress to some degree.

If you use these concepts in your WordPress theme and web 2.0 design, you could well come up with something a little bit special.

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