I thought Web 2.0 was stuff like AJAX and DHTML, like Google Maps compared to old MapQuest. That started in the mid 00’s. The tracking stuff came about a decade later.
Tracking stuff came as soon as you could communicate asynchronously with a server, really. It became widely known and a plague in the 10s but it started as soon as Ajax was available. Keep in mind that Google and most of the websites were free and ads driven almost from the start because that was the only way to create a critical mass of users.
You could definitely track folks with cookies well before Web 2.0, but the storage and processors necessary for the sort of data harvesting we see today didn’t really get profitable until the '10s. Before that Google would run ads that were relevant to the search query rather than tracking your move around the web.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@beehaw.org
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
I thought Web 2.0 was stuff like AJAX and DHTML, like Google Maps compared to old MapQuest. That started in the mid 00’s. The tracking stuff came about a decade later.
Tracking stuff came as soon as you could communicate asynchronously with a server, really. It became widely known and a plague in the 10s but it started as soon as Ajax was available. Keep in mind that Google and most of the websites were free and ads driven almost from the start because that was the only way to create a critical mass of users.
You could definitely track folks with cookies well before Web 2.0, but the storage and processors necessary for the sort of data harvesting we see today didn’t really get profitable until the '10s. Before that Google would run ads that were relevant to the search query rather than tracking your move around the web.