I've always gotten the giggles when the putrescent pundits at old-school "think tanks" like Forrester start throwing BS around. We used to get out our cards and play "Buzzword Bingo," because, well, nobody throws buzz-words like people who would like to be paid for their opinion on something that everybody knows about already. If you want to make it sound like you know something that others don't, you usually start making up your own lingo and using it as if everybody knows what you're talking about. Those that get confused by these made-up terms then spend enormous amounts of money for the publications of these pundits, only to discover that it's usually something that they already knew, and that the think-tank's grasp of the obvious is tenuous at best. The sky isn't really falling, the Web isn't coming to an end, and yes, kids consume web content far more readily than their parents. There's that "duh" moment when you realize that the man behind the curtain has just used 1500 words to tell you something that your average high school graduate can cover in ten. This bliffy got one thing right, though: like most older people, he's completely out of touch with the youth market. Perhaps he can hire some young people to tell him what's going on, and *they* can be paid for their opinion on something that everybody already knows. Funny how what goes around comes around -- again.
The first time I encountered a prediction that the Web was dead was in 1997. The Web was barely even born then. I expect the Web will outlive this prediction, just as it has the others.
It pays in these sorts of discussions to distinguish carefully between, on the one hand, the Web -- an application that, like Dropbox and Facebook -- runs on the Internet, and, on the other hand, the Internet itself.
You say: "Take Dropbox and services of the like. I don't think about them being "on the Web." You're right not to think of them that way, because they don't run on the Web. They're Internet applications which can be accessed through the Web and other means. (And like you I rarely use the Web interface -- although when I share documents, I send a URL, which is a Web tool.)
Social media saturation -- I think it will become more common. Work-related social networking will continue to occupy its own niche, but I think people are starting to have their fill of some of the non-work-related social sites.
Agree that the death of the Web is premature. The death of the underlying access technology is more like it -- and that's not an issue everyone will be aware of, no?
Kicheko, the "elastic limit" of social media...Perfect. Why weren't you around when I was writing this post!?
As for Colony's contention about the Death of the Web, I think he's more saying that thanks to Internet-enabled apps, the relationship between local and "cloud" will be increasingly seamless and invisible. Take Dropbox and services of the like. I don't think about them being "on the Web." They synchronize my devices is all. (And, regarding this app, I very rarely visit the Web interface.)
I agree with points 2, 3 and 4 and particularly that social media is really approaching its elastic limit.
Death of the web on the other hand ...we may be predicting it too soon (hoping i did not misunderstand the point). True that mobile will be bigger than web, but i doubt the basic way of working in the office for instance is about to change. We still work best from a big screen and access the web that way, and commonly using search tools.
My take is that mobile is only coming in to fill an unoccupied gap rather than to kick out web per se. In the sense that people will access internet more in times they would have otherwise not gone to the internet at all. However in times when they were bound to log into their laptops and desktops, they still will do.
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As Mitch Wagner discussed today, Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr. The big Internet debate at the moment is whether Tumblr will be good or bad for Yahoo. Regardless of their stances on the future of Yahoo itself, many claim that Yahoo will somehow ruin Tumblr.
Has China stolen a march on the West, developing an Internet architecture that is not only based on IPv6, but is also inherently secure from both internal and external attack?
Recently, the Obama administration has been of two minds where privacy rights are concerned. On one hand, you have an administration that vowed to veto CISPA and mandated open data for government websites. On the other hand, you have an increasingly out-of-control Department of Justice on a fishing expedition at AP and demanding legislation to let the FBI wiretap private, encrypted communications and levy fines if a company fails to comply.
The apartment and house sharing service, Airbnb, now requires members to verify their identities by demonstrating a presence on the web, and by either scanning a government ID or entering detailed personal details. Other enterprises should take a close look at Airbnb's verification policies.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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