Web 3.0 is on its way to becoming the new paradigm of the Internet. Some argue that Web 3.0 is already here – at least the initial stages of it. We’ll give you a quick recap of what this means and, more so, what it means for your law firm. 

Every so often, the Internet evolves. Just think back to the early 1990s when the Internet’s primary purpose was to share information (anybody remembers Windows XP? We sure do…). Ever since then, the Internet has grown and continues to do so. Web 1.0 was coined by Tim Berners Lee, the Web’s original inventor. Following closely, we found ourselves working with Web 2.0, which is also where we currently stand. Web 2.0 focuses on interactivity, and under this umbrella, many tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube were born. What’s more, during the era of Web 2.0, other giants like Amazon and Google grew to insurmountable proportions and virtually exploded! The Internet is evolving as we speak, and this is where Web 3.0 comes in. 

Web 3.0 integrates automation, live tools, and AI management into the digital culture. All in all, this new process aims at understanding humans better and provides us, the users, with much more relevant and faster results. This means two things for law firms: 

• From the customer’s point of view, they’ll connect to the Internet and get an even more personalized search results page. In addition, they’ll get an even more customized user experience with the help of, e.g., chatbots or AI-driven scheduling tools.
• From the law firm’s point of view, they’ll be more accessible to potential clients online. Consequently, firms can reach more potential clients, expand their business, network, reach, and pretty much expand across all horizons. 

The nature of Web 3.0 is still complex, growing, and largely unknown. Therefore, we’ve decided to break down all the findings that we could find for you, and bring you the most reliable information with what the world currently knows about Web 3.0 and what this entails for your firm. In our first part of Web 3.0 for law firms, we covered the history of Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and what Web 3.0 implies. In addition to that, we also provided six actionable steps so your firm prepares for Web 3.0. 

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s start peeling the rest of the layers. 

What are the secret ingredients of Web 3.0?

What are the characteristics and properties of Web 3.0? 

For starters, the first noticeable characteristics under Web 3.0 are: 

1. Open: Anyone in the world should be able to access records. 
2. Trustless: Users will interact publicly or privately without using a third party, e.g., Facebook. This is a significant shift from Web 2.0. Under today’s Web, big giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon dominate the Internet. All the user data collected by them is then sold to others, and this is a growing data privacy concern for users. Under Web 3.0, it is predicted that users will own their data or at least have much more transparency when it comes to who owns their data and what’s being done with it.
3. Permissionless: Similar to the previously mentioned point, anyone can participate without a governing body, e.g., without the big tech giants. In other words, it aims at becoming decentralized.

In addition to these characteristics, the properties that make up Web 3.0 include: 

1. Semantic Web: This is an extension of the world wide web, and it allows users to create, share, and connect. This is based on understanding the real meaning behind keywords and numbers placed in the search bar. 
2. 3D Graphics: They will be widely used in websites, online video games, e-commerce sites, etc. It’s similar to the metaverse concept. 

• • Metaverse is a technology that implements augmented reality, virtual reality, and video – in other words, people can work and interact in these virtual settings. Facebook changed its name to Meta for a reason: they want to build a metaverse of their own. They’re prepared for Web 3.0 and aim to help users take their accounts/avatars from site to site.

1. Artificial Intelligence: Specifically, natural language processing (NLP) allows computers to comprehend language in the way we speak it. For example, if we search the Web for ‘Apple,’ we could get two completely different results: either the fruit or the tech company. NLP aims to understand the context of the user’s search intent and provide quicker and more relevant results.

What are the opportunities and challenges with Web 3.0?

One of the main benefits of Web 3.0 is that prospects will be able to explore the Web with more complex search queries. Other noticeable opportunities with Web 3.0 include: 

• Better business opportunities will emerge due to faster and more efficient search results. Plus, it’s good to remember that being found online is key to your firm’s survival. 
• New technology will facilitate your business processes, e.g., chatbots that answer FAQs or more relevant advertisements. 
• Better security from hackers.
• Trust from your users since they’ll have more control over the usage of their own data. 

However, there are some challenges with Web 3.0, and that includes: 

• The population is increasingly wanting more privacy and transparency. They want to know where and how the data is used. 
• Although this new Web aims at being decentralized, our current Web is dominated by big giants, so it’s difficult to discern what this new decentralized format will look like. 
• It’s still in its early stages; therefore, it’s challenging to determine what’s to come with absolute certainty.

Why does Web 3.0 matter? 

Although there are challenges and gaps to fill in, Web 3.0 matters, there’s a growing increase of users concerned with their data privacy. Studies have shown that an increasing number of users are concerned with their data privacy. To be exact, based on a study, 86% of respondents feel a growing concern about their data privacy. Additionally, 78% expressed fear about the amount of data collected. This is a significant concern for not only users but for businesses as well. On one side, enterprises need data to give the users the most optimized and personal experience. On the other side, users increasingly distrust companies with their data, in part due to data leaks and lack of transparency. This is a problem that Web 3.0 aims at solving. 

Although this is still in the works, your firm can take some actionable steps to secure privacy today:

• Be more transparent with what you’re doing with your users’ data. 
• Give users more control of their data. This means allowing the user to opt-out of sharing some of their more sensitive data. 
• Create a corporate data responsibility page on your website and explain how the data is used and protected.

Move Faster, Better, and Stronger

Although it’s still not 100% clear how long it will take to reach a fully functioning Web 3.0, one thing is certain: Web 3.0 will change our lives both personally and professionally. As we dive deeper into the Web 3.0 era, online will be an even more indispensable part of our everyday lives. On top of that, more and more users are opting to search for online services. This implies your firm’s digital efforts must be optimized to fit these upcoming new norms. 

As Web 3.0 evolves, so must your firm – you will need to move faster, better and stronger today and tomorrow with the help of legal digital marketing experts by your side to ensure your spot as an industry leader. While we hope our blog posts offer the latest and most enriching legal marketing information, we also understand that putting in the actual marketing plan to work by yourself requires a mass amount of effort, expertise, and time. But, worry not! Whether you have more questions about Web 3.0, comments, ideas, or, better yet, want to get a head start, our legal marketing experts are always here to help.