I review what I have read and written about Web 2.0. The following three points summarize my best understanding.

1. The Web now is not simply a document delivery system. It becomes an application platform. It can be your programmable oyster through public API’s and web services.
2. With technologies that enable data to become independent of the website it originated on, content now can move beyond websites, can be altered, filtered or remixed by anyone for any specific purpose.
3. The Web now encourages more and richer user participation. Users control how data is categorized and manipulated. The Web now gives people more flexibility to find, organize, share and create information in a socially-networked fashion.

The following are two recently hot weblogs posts about reviews on Web 2.0 applications of 2005.

• Top 10 Innovative Web 2.0 Applications of 2005 (By: Mark Millerton)
• The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005

If you want a gentle introduction on what Web 2.0 is, I recommend this: What is Web 2.0? By Andy Budd of Clearleft Ltd.