A spate of technologies power and drive the Web 2.0 ecosystem and enable the core principles of an open, customisable and read/write web as a platform. In this session, we present an overview of some of these technologies, through our extensive practical experience gained in utilising them in both e-Science and broader projects. These technologies include Google Gadgets, JavaScript, LAMP, AJAX and Ruby on Rails. In this context, we present the rationale behind, and the tools and techniques for, building mashups - one of the fundamental aspects of Web 2.0 and clearly driven by the technologies and principles underpinning Web 2.0. This will prepare the audience for the remaining two sessions in this series. Finally, like the evolution of Web 2.0 itself, the technologies have been driven by principles and ideologies and are spawning newer and more innovative platforms, tools, techniques and technologies. We present some of these with a view to identifying the future trends of Web 2.0 and how this may apply to e-Science and e-Research.