Im increasingly beginning to believe that Web 2.0 will die... Its an abomination think what Web 2.0 applications are
Middle ware apps - with java script clients , a language where few people have the required skils - A non deterministic rending system for the UI with archaic postbacks - A back end which is also badly dated - an inefficient protocol that sens 10-13 bytes of data for each byte if you need to send binary data .. or you need to encode it. - A slow and polluted UI . as marketers push flash etc into pages as well as browser addins - Security issues due to the browser architecture itself.
For a limited number of companies who can afford to hand craft their javascrips ( ie not ASP.NET / server components) and who need broad reach Web 2.0 is good , but for most enterprises its a poor solution. Delivering java /.Net apps to your clients is far cheaper / more maintanable model with betetr user experience.
I have had a look at Silverlight(WPF/E ) and it seems to have much better rendering/performance and be more elegant but its from Microsoft.
Regards,
Ben