With the start of a New Year comes a bold new confidence in the Internet and what it can do for all of us. Certainly 2005 had a number of interesting developments but it looks like this year will see a lot of change, and, as ever, a lot of hype.

The buzzword is definitely "Web v2.0", but what does this mean? Well, because it is essentially a marketing phrase it remains difficult to completely pin it down but we're going to try anyway.

"Web v2.0" is a steady realisation that the interent is finally beginning to live up to some of its expectation. It is a mixture of converging technolgies and disruptive ones.

The ubiquitous mobile phone is converging with Wi-Fi and Broadband to bring us high speed web access anywhere (given time). More and more services are being offered solely online, and proving to be effective. And pioneers like Google and Skype are proving to be a thorn in the side of many businesses by giving away state-of-the-art services for FREE. And yet they still make vast sums of money.

Broadly speaking Web v2.0 is a way of summing up the fact that the internet has put to bed most of its bad memories of 2000/2001, and is finally showing signs of coming-of-age. With ever-increasing usage and decreasing prices of broadband, greater education and a general knowledge of how the web works filtering into the collective sub-conscious, it may finally be deserving of some of its hype.

So 2006 will be an interesting year and if you're not on the bandwagon yet, I think it is probably time you hitched up.