It seems some people believe that the term/word “Web 2.0″ is the one millionth word to enter the English language.

The Global Language Monitor has used a method of their own devising to monitor the usage of a word.  According to them Web 2.0 has officially, at least by their standards, become the one millionth word in the English language.  However, according to Reuters, Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has called the entire thing “nonsense”, and I have to say I agree with him.

The definition that the Global Language Monitor gave to the term is:

The next generation of web products and services, coming soon to a browser near you.

Well, seeing as most people in the tech field feel that Web 2.0 is over and is trying to figure out the next generation already, I would say the “coming soon” part is definitely incorrect.  Web 2.0 was indeed a time period in the development of the Internet, but it has already ended and we are on to things such as “the real-time web”, Web 3.0, the semantic Web and so on.

According to the same Reuters story, other linguists think this was a publicity stunt, and I would have to say I agree again.  This made a nice “hip” headline, but it is disingenuous at best.  So I hope the term enjoyed its day in the spotlight, but it will be forgotten by tomorrow.