Content is King was often said in the early days of Internet. And never before it's been so much evident as its today.

Today we have a whole lot of social networking and individualistic platforms collectively referred as Web 2.0 available to common Internet users. This has unleashed a whole new phenomenon on Internet where users creates all kind of content be it photos, songs, videos, blogs etc., on the fly.

A whole group of scientists, corporate houses and experts have come together to create the second generation of Internet, commonly referred by them as Internet 2.0 or simply Web 2.0. Research is on to create second-generation Internet technologies through which end-users will have power and control over the Internet. They will create, edit, accept or decline whatever they feel and whatever they like giving a tough time to attention seekers.

To know more about Internet 2.0 please visit: http://www.internet2.edu

What does this all mean for Internet as a medium?

Internet as a whole will benefit from this second-generation technology wave. It will become more personalized and more individualistic in nature.

There will be a surfeit of information but checking on the credibility and quality of the information they seek will be a key challenge faced by the Internet users. Web 2.0 tools like Wiki are already facing the heat on this front and increasingly people are asking how credible and relevant is the information that Wiki provides to users?

This all social networking second generation technologies will see and face lot of policing on Internet. This will result in spawning a whole generation of experts or middlemen. These will be people who will take the responsibility of monitoring, moderating and authenticating whatever is coming out of these 2.0 technologies on Internet.

Corporate houses will take time to catch up with these technologies. Web 2.0 for them is a paradox they are closely watching as of now, and they are still not sure which way it will take them in future. Already agencies in US have started provides consulting services to corporate houses on: Company Blogs management and managing a company's brand image. They offer to do so by consulting companies on how to manage their Web 2.0 technologies portfolio.

So what does it all means for Information professionals?

Information will further become a rare commodity on Internet. As more and more users generate content on the fly, scouring Internet for information will become a major challenge for information seekers. As search engines do not index information form Web 2.0 sources accessing this information will pose a major challenge to users. This information is also not aggregated and presented by any Internet source and giving the way tools like blogs, video blogs are increasing soon they will form a sizeable chunk of information available out there on Internet.

The second generation of Internet has arrived there is no doubt about that but like all other technologies it will go through the same cycle of maturity and will take time to really filter out itself and finally deliver value to the cyber space.