Over the past couple of months, most of the web pages that I visit regularly have taken on a new look.

Out is:
Clutter
Colour
Surplus information

In is:
White
Clean lines
Tabs (everywhere)
Better fonts

Is it my imagination or has the net suddenly had a massive make-over that is more style than substance? (the content seems the same).

Well, not sure whether the new design trends constitute 'Web 2' or not, but I like clean pages, because they're more likely to be easy to maintain, smaller to load and give crap sites fewer places to hide - they can't hide the lack of useful content behind Flash and lots of dreadful graphics. :)

they can't hide the lack of useful content behind Flash and lots of dreadful graphics. :)

Many have tried, many have tried:rolleyes:

I think its more to do with being easy to use and read. Making it less work for visitors to spend money with the site owner, directly or not. It does take alot of work to make something simple but rather usefull as opose to foolishly just making things more complicated.

Web 2.0 is a silly buzzword, like Internet2, and all the other buzzwords that have appeared over the past couple of years. What it really means is a better use of technologies such as AJAX (Advanced Javascrips And XML). Google maps uses it, as does this very forum. Also better use of XHTML and CSS2, and soon CSS3 (Which promises so many enhancements that people have been screaming out for for years, and interact much better with the new level of browser development, FireFox 2.0, IE7 etc.)

It speeds things up by only changing the relevant parts of the page without a full page reload, making faster, and more user interactive. Watch how you can edit a post, and add a post via quick reply, without having your browser reload the whole page.

New designs and general cleanup is a very very small part of the new development that falls under Web2.0, but like most things, Web2.0 is just a buzzword to envelope all the new technologies appearing in pages. A lot of what Web 2.0 stands for is just common sense anyway, and encompass lots things that web developers should have been doing for years, but it also brings to the table lots of new ideas, and better enforcement of standards and guidance.

Joel