Future Marketing Blueprint
| Published on: 11/02/ 2007 | By: J.Holliday
| Rating: 3.00 | Total Views: 1144
|
|
| About The Author: Jerry Holliday heads up freelance design agency code 9 and the Resource that takes you to the web's edge - FutureMarketingBlueprint.com Website URL: http://www.futuremarketingblueprint.com Click Here to Write a Review |
|
| Go Back | Print Article | |
There is one feature that everyone wants on their computers: the Do-What-I-Mean button. Imagine that, a computer that understands what you're trying to do and will just up and do it for you. “Make this report look pretty”, “take the photos from this camera and put a sideshow on a DVD with my favorite music”. Sounds nice ? Unfortunately, something like this is sadly missing from product roadmaps from Apple and Microsoft. The good news is, this is the sort of thing that has been talked about for the World Wide Web for years. And it's getting closer. In the beginning, the Web was simple. Text, a few pictures, and links to other sites. This was Web 1.0 and it was cool enough and useful enough to change the way we do business and conduct our social lives. But Web 1.0 pages either just sat there, or blinked and beeped and played tinny music. You could click links to new pages, you could go back, and that was it. If you found a product listing and wanted to sort it by price instead of by name, you had to ask the host server to re-send you the page with the items sorted the way you wanted. Where we are now A few years ago the term “Web 2.0” was coined. A Web 2.0 site uses more interactive elements that the old web simply couldn't do. Tables of product listings or flight times are now sent to the user and can be manipulated by controls on the page. Photo galleries now just load the next image when the 'next' button is clicked. A user can drag an email to a folder instead of having to check a box, select an option on a menu and click a button. This new level functionality is made possible by new techniques and new technologies that turn web browsers from simple tools for displaying static pages to application platforms that can run complex functions with rich interactivity that a few years ago could only be achieved by writing a standalone program and downloading it. An important component is trust (like eBay feedback ratings) and relevance (like Digg.com and other user-recommended directories). Next Steps The most obvious shortcoming of both Web 1.0 and 2.0 is that you have to go get your information. Actually, the real biggest problem is that your computer has no idea what an airfare is, doesn't care about your frequent flier miles, and has absolutely no concept that you're planning to go scuba diving in an area affected by toxic algae right now. Addressing that lack of understanding is the key to Web 3.0, but for now let's look at what helpers we have available now. The two big topics that Web 2.0 opened up are “what new information is available ” and “is this information relevant ?” Right now, you can use an RSS feed to be updated on new articles on a web site, activity on your friends FaceBook pages, or concert ticket availability or any other sort of information a website chooses to publish. This is a good start, and another technology known as RDF (Resource Description Framework) is helping to add the meaning to web pages that is presently lacking. A web publisher can use RDF to describe their data so that other computer programs can know what the data means; otherwise a price is just a bit of text that happens to have a dollar sign on it, a time is just some numbers, and so on. Who is working on it ? Everyone. Everyone who doesn't want to be left behind as Web 3.0 glimmers on the horizon. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the group that formulates standards for the Web, is working on proposals that will move beyond RSS and RDF to truly allow Web 3.0 to be rich in meaning and utility for useful applications we can't begin to write now. Apple is steadily developing their Dashboard technology which allows anyone to make a widget that pulls data from websites and presents it to the user. Some companies, such as AdaptiveBlue are developing browser plug-ins that look at the content of pages you visit and scan them for meaning. Web 3.0 is still a long way away, but the foundations are being laid now. What's ahead for Web 3.0 The big hurdle ahead for Web 3.0 is getting enough websites to agree to common terms and allow for access by the user agents that will do the grunt work of searching for flight times, checking personal schedules, and coordinating everything for you. A few companies, both established in the industry and well-funded startups, will attempt to market their own framework for Web 3.0 applications and attempt to build a web of trust. Others will rely on open standards from the W3C and other bodies. What is sure is that we will soon see another transitional phase on the web as new technologies are introduced and compete for users and publishers. Not all of the definitions are in place, but we can expect another whole new web just over the horizon. |
Need content? Give your website visitors quality content to keep them coming back and save yourself tons of time by not having to write your own. Please click here for help in using these codes. PHP VersionDisplay the 5 Most Recent Article Headlines. Display the Most Recent Article. Display Random Articles. Display articles for specific keyword. Please replace the word "test" with your keyword while using the sample code. |
JavaScript VersionDisplay the Most Recent Article. |