Behavioral Targeting: Web 3.0

The conversation has shifted away from the hackneyed Web 2.0 term, to what will most likely be the next overused meeting phrase, Web 3.0. In this next iteration - users will be able to create a platform of widgets on their computer that will control the content they view. It will (in a perfect world) let users stay with their favorites sites and eliminate the clutter.
Already Google and other toolbars are tracking people’s behavior. Face it, Google doesn’t care about search quality. Their only goal is to increase the number of clicks on their text ads and improve sales.
Google is already making changes based on the user’s behavior. They will track user’s behavior to determine the number of ads, whether text ads or graphic are used, or audio, mixed media, or collect more information.
Web 2.0 put control of content in blogger and social network’s hands. Web 3.0 is, is expected to put control of search in user’s hands. But, from what I have read, MSN, Google, and others are working hard to prevent the users from usurping control. Google has a lot to lose if it’s strangle-hold on search results deteriorates.
Web 3.0 is also called Semantic Web, a term coined by Tim Berners-Lee , (He invented the first World Wide Web). The Semantic Web is a place where machines will read Web pages in the same way users read a computer screen. Search engines and software agents will troll the Net and find what the user is looking for. “It’s a set of standards that turns the Web into one big database,” says Nova Spivack, CEO of Radar Networks.
In theory, Web 3.0 will work like this. A user wants to outsource programming. You type in ‘outsource PHP Programming.’ The Semantic agent pulls up articles that discuss how to find a good programmer, a few on the pitfalls and then, without any assistance, it pulls up agencies that deal with outsourcing and programming.
How? From what I see Web 3.0 will bring back the meta-based database. There will be robot files and meta codes on each page. Webmasters will not be able to ignore the SEO rules. The death of the stupid web spiders will announce the birth of Web 3.0.
The companies working on these new Semantic agents promise that websites will not need to change coding. The problem will be in the fact that everyone has their own idea of what Web 3.0 should be. If the web is a hodgepodge now, you’ve seen nothing yet.
Today’s business owners need to rethink the interfaces that will be used shortly. Some expect the web to resemble Secondlife.com, a virtual 3D world that users ‘walk’ through as they shop for information in cyberspace.
To confuse things further, Companies like Ojos and Polar Rose are inventing media search, hinting at a world where we search by media and not keywords. No one knows what Web 3.0 will look like, but one thing is certain. If you are still behind-the-times and working on keyword density and static websites with no user interface then you’ll be left behind. Far behind.