For those of you who have seen the Watchmen, then you recognize that clock - it counts down, supposedly moving ever closer to Nuclear War. This is a nice little analogy for what I want to talk about - the future of the internet.
The evolution of Facebook is but one example of websites' endless march towards singularity. Websites will start taking and integrating the best of other websites (Twitter's updatability, Google's comprehensiveness, Wikipedia's crowd-sourcing, etc.) until in the future, every good website will more or less be the same.
So what will the ideal website look like?
Synergistic - The site will likely be a hub for many different types of things; it will likely contain news/updates, history, links, commercial aspects, etc., and will be able to do everything easily. In addition, everything on the site will link together and be related in some way.
Multipurpose - The site will have many uses and many different reasons for people to see the site, whether it be to gain information, buy something, be entertained, etc. This goes hand in hand with synergistic in that there will be a lot of different things, and all of it will flow together.
Multicultural - The site will be available in many different languages, and will be useful to all of them. This could be done from the ground up (i.e. Wikipedia, which builds a different "mirror" site for other cultures, and has people from those cultures updating on their own), or after the fact (Google's translator), but in either case, it will be more accessible and accurate than current standards. Go global, or go home, I guess.
Simple - and almost painfully so. The sites will be blatantly obvious, so everyone can get accustomed to it at a first glance. Point and click is already getting this way, but things will be simplified further and further, (likely with more obvious drop-down menu headers, and a more user-friendly search bar - one that might fix grammatical errors or bring up related items that are "Close enough" to a guess). My guess? Page refreshes every time you blink.
Customizable - everyone will have their own custom site, floating all their preferences to the forefront - and probably without having to log in every time. I'm almost envisioning a universal "web" passport that lets a person sign up for every site at once (think: how Google Accounts are trending, letting you use search, mail, word processors, blogs, picture managers, etc.) Something more universal than just the "Saved passwords" feature - never EVER let your laptop be stolen in the future. But then, in the future, it'll probably be built into your brain; I know, that sounds almost biblical, but it'll be CONVENIENT and that's what matters, right?
Mobile - with computing getting smaller and more mobile, websites will have to be tailored to fit a person on the move - ads / shopping that tie in to surroundings, sites easily viewable on a small screen, and so forth (at least until said computer is installed into the person directly...). The other option here is that services themselves become more mobile, and the person becomes less mobile - meaning everything will be done at home, while staring at a computer screen. While wearing this shirt.
Interactive - the sites will seem more real than reality. You'll never want to be away from it, since it's like your best friend; it knows everything about you, it changes to suit your every need, and it looks stylish to boot. A computer crash or server error would be like the death of a family member, but that's the price you pay for having a website know that your favorite song should play in the background while you play a certain game, and that a deep dish pizza and milkshake should be mailed to your front door, while that movie you wanted to see slowly downloads to your hard drive...
So there you have it. The perfect site - simple, obvious, yet fully tailored to your needs. It's like finding your one true love, and that one true love knows your credit card number. Better make sure those IT Guys are on your side; or else, tragedy might strike!
Sorry Google.... you're not there yet.
Haha facebook has a way of slowly sneaking small changes into their sites too.
ReplyDeleteWeb passport eh? interesting..sure sounds like its heading that way. Google translator is OK, and I heard about more websites adapting to cater to the increase in smartphone usage.