I have high respect for his writings, all I read were worth it.

He just wrote about Web 2.0, and I find this a very interesting read. I agree with him here, especially with the line “Web 2.0 means using the web the way it’s meant to be used.”

Ajax is not fundamentally new. It’s just JavaScript. It’s still slow, has sometimes usability problems, and often just doesn’t work right… And Ajax certainly isn’t worth to be called “Web 2.0”…

What has been reappearing this year are “third party hacks” on the net. That was also the biggest thing about Google Maps: the API - others could use it (for free) to make other cool stuff with it. This is part of what Graham calls “Democracy” and of what he calls “Don’t maltreat users” (especially not “lead users” and developers if you want them to adopt your stuff!)

But basically I still don’t think we’re at anything fundamentally new here. The API stuff for example makes me think of OpenSource vs. Freeware… getting stuff for free is nice, but being able to modify it to exactly fit your needs is priceless. ;-)