During the late 90's and early 2000, internet was still a bit of fresh air to us, Filipinos. Computers are mainly for rich folks who by that time were either mastering MS Paint or slammed down in their room playing solitaire. Internet and Gaming Cafes were can easily counted by fingers and they often come with a frustratingly high rental fee but computers were never that significant at the first place, it was a budding technology but not yet utilized due to hardware costs and lousy, slow-as-snail internet connection. The Internet, no matter how attractive it is, doesn't really exist yet, as in, no one bothered.

But with ISPs starting to offer households with decent connection and the huge price drop of Computers paves the way for Filipinos to finally embrace the said technology. With the sudden popularity of Online games and Instant messaging, Computers and Computer-associated task become in-demand, even the simplest of all people who haven't touched a mouse and a keyboard was sold, thanks to the Internet. But what exactly trigger the internet phenomena to the masses? The Answer, the Web 2.0, How? Read below.

First, What is Web 2.0? According to Wikipedia.org (which is a web 2.0 site itself) - Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of WWW from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Keyword: transition. Again, before anything else, what is pre-Web 2.0 looked like? Not much, Just static websites with every bit of information about it, informational but often-boring, less-interactive and even sometimes too geeky for an average user to handle. Good thing that era is over and the transition to the next stage had justifiably brought life to the internet. Since you now have basic knowledge about the Web 2.0, lets head back to the question on how the web 2.0 sold the internet to us, Filipinos. Simple, it is fun.

And to say the least, easy. The ease of browsing help us became addicted. It is simple as typing keywords to a search box - then having thousand of results popping up. We don't need overly complicated tasks just to watch a movie streamed online - we want it fast, because we value time. Web 2.0 improved all of that so that end-users (especially the casual ones) will have lot of time productively than annoy them because of complexity of text-filled sites, to say things short, the internet becomes more accessible because of Web 2.0.

Social Networking sites - We are clearly known to be Social apes anywhere in the world, easy to adapt, friendly and warm, that's why it is very popular to us, folks. Whether hogging all the friends we can add or just plain to meet new people, we are so there. Interaction real time has never been more been visible to the internet until now, whether chatting using YM (with a webcam) or browsing for new friends to add in your Friendster account, Internet have become a central hub for Filipinos to become more socially active.

We, Filipinos are known for being Cheapskates - We cater more to quantity than quality. We love freebies. That's why with the implementation of Web 2.0, our cravings to anything free had gone through the roof. Now we can access to anything with the help of video streaming sites such as YouTube that gives you free and unlimited access to clips that sometimes you have to pay for. Haven't you heard of Chikka? You can now send an SMS message to anywhere in the country for free from a PC (there's still restrictions). Need to call someone abroad without spending? Try Skype - a free VoIP software that lets you call someone using the internet. You can also now upload large files without paying for a storage account so you can pass it anytime with your friends or even co-workers. They are free, but it doesn't mean they are low-standard, they are free because of the demand to make Internet usage better without spending too much, making it more fun in the process.

And the last, another outlet for our creativity and talent. This is the grandest reason why Filipinos fell in love with the Internet. In case the rest of the world didn't know, we're the kind that oozes with talent, (though sometimes used for wrong reasons) bears bizarre intelligence and possesses such charisma that only an internet enthusiast could love. We are Internet stars - a great example is the CPDRC inmates dance number (From Cebu) interpretation of Michael Jackson's Thriller, which by this date has surpassed the 5 million hit mark. Another famous Filipino is the Happy Slip girl "Christine", A Filipina YouTuber who is at one time the #4 most subscribed channel in YouTube. See how popular we are? Filipinos also litter the blog scene with almost thousands of bloggers from friendsters, blogspots and from their own blog sites, a popular blogger/Model/Actress/Host, Bianca Gonzales even had her own blog despite her strict schedule. Internet with the help of Web 2.0 makes sure that creativity has plenty of room for those who are willing to lend little of their time and publicly show themselves with the entirety of the world.

Fun, Easy, Social, Cheap and Unlimited potential for creativity. Few of the reasons why now, Filipinos cannot go on with their lives without going online. Have a happy and productive surfing!