Will Web 5.0 really change our world?

Decentralised, emotion-predicting: Web 5.0 could be a gamechanger

Believe it or not, the internet only started to be relatively interactive about 25 years ago. In the early days, all that users could expect to see when they dialled up (remember that?) were static online brochures.

That, in internet jargon, was called “Web 1.0” which was mostly composed of web pages joined by hyperlinks. Experts refer to it as the “read-only” web – not interactive in any significant sense.

Depending on your point of view this was either the good old days or frustratingly restrictive.

But things move fast in internet-land. Around 1999, the term Web 2.0 was coined. This enabled the public to add content, publish articles and comment on others. Still largely centralised, Web 2.0 was dominated by by companies that would go on to become household names – Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

Then along came Web 3.0, o ering more decentralisation which is what cryptocurrency and metaverse companies continue to push for (though Tim Berners Lee, credited with the invention of the World Wide Web, appears to disagree. Last year he reportedly told a web summit in Portugal that he doesn’t view blockchain as a viable solution for building the next iteration of the internet – but that’s another article).

And so to Web 4.0. A further development to enhance the user experience. One of the most important aspects of Web

4.0, according to experts, is its focus on collaboration and collective intelligence through an increased use of social media and mobile devices.

And finally, this issue’s topic: Web 5.0.

This promises to be even more decentralised, and while it’s still in development, Web 5.0 is expected to bring about a new level of connectivity, automation and intelligence that will transform the way the world lives, works and communicates.

One main idea behind Web 5.0 for businesses, which will support Industry

5.0 - sometimes also called the fifth industrial revolution (confused yet?), is that companies will become more e cient by using AI (artificial intelligence) and automation to do the work for them.

It is hoped that this will lead to higher industry competitiveness and greater profits for those companies that successfully take advantage of the transition.

5G networks will provide the right infrastructure to support the high-speed data transfer needed by emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles and drones. This increased level of automated communication will, say experts, make things such as transportation safer and more e cient.

Web 5.0 will also be able to support websites that can map a person’s emotions, using facial recognition when the user is wearing a headset, and responding accordingly.

Imagine a website being able to tell if you’re angry, sad or happy, adapting its o er to selling you what it thinks you’re most likely to buy.

Or being able to console you if you’ve had a miserable day or are more seriously depressed.

More practically, Web 5.0, being decentralised, gives users more control over their identity and data and how they use it, say experts.

There’s a high level of expectation of other things that Web 5.0 could deliver. Those trying to manage its introduction cite the idea of harmonious human–machine collaborations, with a specific focus on the well-being of the multiple stakeholders (society, companies, employees, customers). But we wonder whether that’s a pipe dream.

Last year, the former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, to further confuse matters, announced a new decentralised platform called ‘Web 5’, a combination of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 built on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Whatever Web 5.0 turns out to be, it’s likely that the world will embrace it, for good or ill.