What is your vision for the web?

Question

I never have imagined Twitter would have gotten as big as it did.

Social Networking is so large it's almost overbearing.

Google's big enough to start it's own country and everyone and their mom has a blog.

What trends in technology and web usage does this community see coming up in the next one, two or three years? What should the growing population of coders be prepared for?

edit

I see it was voted as closed and I want to repeal that. Looking towards what people feel is coming in the future is extremely relevant. There's a host of new and emerging technologies and technology applications out there and seeing what the community feels is a relevant path of growth can help guide personal investment into learning.

The whole point of me asking this question is to see what ideas other people had and from that, think of how I can both learn about these areas and further development them.

Answer 1

People are motivated, primarily by social drivers. Collaboration, collective intelligence, and social networking will no longer be relevant ends in and of themselves. Instead, they will be feature modules added on to enhance other applications.

In my work on Cogenuity, I have come to realise that, in the not too distant future, share and discuss functionality will be as prevalent as save and new is now.

Answer 2

Better hardware promotes richer UI, and the web is reduced to pipe that sends encrypted data back and forth.

Answer 3

I think mobile platforms will become ubiquitous. I also think that the social interaction that is just now being explored on mobile platforms will mature in significant ways.

I wish I could see what was next, though. :)

Answer 4

We're already in the thick of user generated content, we'll get a rise of the user generated site, maybe a little like SO, but for the masses. The experience won't be as rich as everyone imagines, but we will get full video on demand, for new films.

On a different tack Steve Jobs will be canonized, and google will release a desktop OS.

Answer 5

Some day Semantic Web technologies will enable us to draw knowledge from all the information we currently drowning in... and we will figure out that the meaning of life is really 42.

Answer 6

Also increased traffic consumption worldwide is causing full load of routers, which consume electricity and produce heat thus adding to the global warming. But I find it okay for I love warmth. :)

Not sure about mobile platforms. Just the yesterday have I read a report saying around 70% of smartphone users admit no interest for additional application but though wanting their phone being capable of running them. Mobile and wearables are definitely over-hyped these days.

But I fell more and more people will be getting some kind of online representation. Communities will be built further and new forms of collaboration will emerge.

Web has already brought us together, I mean before we were all from different countries often only having seen other places on movies and maybe talking to a foreigner once or twice in our life time. Now we are all together, inhabitants of the global village. Think in this direction and you will see new possibilities.

Answer 7

I believe we will soon experience a situation where all personal computers will become terminals. Everything will be done online. I only hope that this will be done in a clear, secure and consistent way and most importantly, free.

And by free, I mean free as in freedom and free as in beer! Meaning that this will be done in a transparent way, and companies will sell services and not products. Lastly, I hope that this will not end up in a monopoly. The users will be able to choose the way (or the company, if you prefer) to do everything online.