In layman language Web 2.0 means the second generation of web development. The first generation web development is considered to be the great dot-com bubble of late 90's and the rupture of which around late 2001 triggered ubiquitous reactions that the Web was over hyped. Concept of second generation of Web development started after a media conference between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. In this brainstorming session it was realized that the web has thrown up more interesting applications and Web technology has emerged more important that ever and the word Web 2.0 was coined. Web 2.0 is a business revolution making a bent towards the web as a platform. Web 2.0 doesn't have a definite boundary and there are several things encompassing a core. Web 2.0 is visualized as principles and collection of numerous sites running on those principles at some distance from the core.

Since then Web 2.0 has remained a top level discussion for proper definition and boundary that is yet to be reached. One can simply say blogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, and lightweight business over a single platform. Web is no more one way, now uploading, and downloading of information happens simultaneously, sharing and distributing contents across networks leveraging the power of "Long Tail".

Web 2.o includes numerous practices. Here are some typically implemented practices by websites:

• Well-off internet applications based on Flex or Ajax.
• This intend to allow information intended for end-users, such as contact information, calendar events, geographic coordinates, content life, social relationships etc
• Presentation is separated from content through Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
• High-end APIs (Application programming interfaces).
• Content Syndication through RSS or Atom.
• Facility for content creation through users, also by machines from client side or server side.

Content Syndication: Syndicating partial or whole content through standard protocols such as RSS, Atom, and RDF by using XML so as to be used by the end-users for their need.

Some misconceptions on Web 2.0:

• Curvy designs (This curvy structures became widely popular at the same time, designers also started making more websites with this cool looking styles)
• Use of Ajax or Flex (Which happens to come in the same time of Web 2.0, No doubt that websites with web 2.0 architecture needs these to work well.)

Web 2.0 is not an alien to criticism and had its fair share. Here are some criticisms leveled at Web 2.0

• Web 2.0 is not a new version of World Wide Web at all. It merely uses the technologies and architectures of Web 1.0.
• Ajax is not substituting the HTML protocol; it's an additional layer over HTML.
• Blogs or social networking was features of Amazon.com since 1995 when the word called Web 2.0 dint exist. It's way more than only blogs and social networking.

Millions of websites being launched year after year can only signify two important things. One, the importance of being on the net, regardless of whether yours is a small business website, a home page, an ecommerce or even a portal, and two, easy availability of variety of free templates which make website building a child's play.

In this article, let us try to explore whether templates, free or paid, offer suitability and ease of working and why they are taking the newbie web owners and builders as well as professionals by storm.

Website templates are pre made web designs into which you can start filling in your information straight after downloading. Easily, this eliminates the cumbersome task of having to design an appealing layout and more than that, it does not want you to have any knowledge of HTML at all.

At this point in time, you might be tempted to ask, if this is all, how good it is over HTML editors which don't require a template to be downloaded for every time you are building a website? True, they don't require you to possess knowledge of HTML but they still rest the task of creating an appealing layout upon you, juggling with color schemes, and placement of different sections on your page etc which are really not your job. It is precisely here that the website templates fill the void- import web templates into your favorite HTML editor and get-set-go with site building.

Conventional method of web designing is out of date as it takes a lot of manual labor a web entrepreneur can hardly afford to waste. When web presence matters to you for reasons beyond passion, you would never want to waste time and efforts on designing your own templates or even purchase them in bulk.

Free templates are in no way inferior to paid templates but you have to be choosey about your source. They do not limit your aspirations; instead you can have a variety of them such as free CSS templates, PSD templates, besides the plain HTML types. The very reason these templates are a matter of big business today is their aesthetics, functionality, easy of use and of course, the huge demand.

Free templates also make business sense considering the number of websites the ordinary people launch every month. To get your business off by launching hundreds of websites you know what makes sense and what not. Choose your templates without compromising on your needs and let the cost be condoned by the world.

So you want to build a website and at this point you may be very excited. There seems to be so much opportunity online that it seems that you cannot go wrong. You read all those sales pages out there telling you that you only need work fifteen minutes a day and you will make thousands.

Forgive me I am being a little dramatic but I think you get the picture.

The solid fundament when it comes to building websites is to understand why people go online. Number one they go online for information. This information can be entertaining or solution orientated. It can also be sought out for research purposes.

So the first question is which category do you fall into? Now let me give you that tip. If you are interested in a subject lets take health as an example its imperative at the outset to have an open mind.

What you think may work, may not so you have to be prepared for that. Secondly you need to make sure and research thoroughly so that when you make the decision you can at least know that you have done your homework and therefore your odds of success are far greater.

Let me tell you what happened to me. I went out bull headed and just picked a topic that I was interested in and was not adaptable at all. Then I just built a site and put a lot of work into it but got very little results. Then of course I lost motivation and before you know it I almost got burnt out.

I cannot tell you how depressing it is when your dream of working online becomes a nightmare of failure.

To conclude keep it simple, be adaptable, focus heavily on research and understand that it takes work so don't be easily influenced by all sorts of hype that will in essence only distract you.