Social Applications

Synonyms

Web 2.0 applications; Collaborative software

Definition

Web applications, characteristic of the Web 2.0, that allow users to share data and interact with other users.

Key Points

The advent of the Web 2.0 has empowered the Web clients, thus providing users with richer and more complex interaction capabilities. The development of communication and interaction tools has therefore emerged, giving raise to computer-mediated communication and to collaborative approaches to content creation, based on new applications, such as social networking, file sharing, instant messaging, and blogs – just to mention few.

The advantage from the user experience perspective is that Web users do not play only the role of passive actors accessing information, but they become creators of the contents published by Web applications.

Very often, such new applications also foster the creation of online communities, i.e., groups of people that interact via Web-based communication media and cooperatively...