SANTA CRUZ, CA - April 16, 2008 - While many equate Web 2.0 to funny videos on YouTube, high school students tossing up a MySpace page, or friends and colleagues sharing information on Facebook, there is a lot of strategic business-to-business development going on by software developers, according to the 2008 Web 2.0 Development Report just released by Evans Data Corp.

Developers are working on Web 2.0 software for business applications in several areas, including three that stand out in the survey:

• Interface design - 40 percent of interfaces for Web 2.0 applications are "mixed" web-rich clients that include AJAX for fast downloads of pages that include live feeds of data (gadgets) and other dynamic components found in Web 2.0 applications.
• Gadgets and widgets (portable web parts) - an overwhelming majority of respondents are using gadgets/widgets from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and others to deploy fast, lightweight business applications and services.
• Social networking - over half (56 percent) of the developers in scientific and technical fields see social networking as a communications and collaboration medium, and OEMs and systems integrators see benefits in product delivery. Showing a slower adoption rate, over half of other markets currently have no plans to use social networking at this time.

"Businesses are starting to realize the strengths of Web 2.0 in terms of fast deployment of rich Internet applications, use of open source technologies, as well as some of the communications benefits it can provide to employees and customers," said John Andrews, president and CEO of Evans Data Corp. "While developers are the 'early adopters' of the technology, the demand for Web 2.0 talent is only getting hotter. It’s an indication that the business market will continue to grow quite rapidly."

For more information on the Web 2.0 Development Report, click here.

Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans' syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.

Copyright 2008 Evans Data Corporation. All other company names, products and services mentioned in this document are the trademarks and property of their respective owners.

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