Web innovation is at least as unpredictable as anything else, perhaps more so. Still, some trends are shaping up already, a few of which have been percolating for a year or more. There will be technological advances, attitude shifts and various convergences of devices, Web sites, “personal tech” and “smart applications.” The following themes and focuses – among many others, certainly – will be in the news in 2010. The ever-present “now” – Facebook and Twitter, and their hordes of imitators, brought a bubble to the real-time trend in the latter part of 2009. The growing demand for instant everything, immediate interactivity and “nowness” reflects people’s desire to make the most of every moment, and fast. Smartphones, netbooks and WiFi-enabled whatchamacallits will converge more and more until people won’t trust restaurant ratings unless they’re from diners still at the tables. Real-time collaboration will get a boost, too, once Google can explain exactly what Wave is.
Augmented reality (AR) – Often, the early adopters glom onto things that actually become big hits. Just as often, perhaps, they glom wrong. Concerning “augmented reality,” we’ll have to wait and see, although advances in GPS and cellphone/mobile PC technology already allow services like Layar to “overlay” data on your screen. A photo from your phone or netbook’s camera will come to life with Wikipedia, Google and Yelp “info bubbles.” Very cool, but will people use it enough to make it a winner? Heads in the clouds – “Cloud computing” was one of the major buzzwords of 2009. Some pundits see the trend toward data and applications leaving our desktops for new homes on servers in that great, uncharted “elsewhere” known as “the cloud” as being inescapable. They trumpet the fact that the data will be accessible from anywhere open to collaboration with decentralized, distributed participants. The first half of 2010 will see the debut of free, online versions of Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Word, to be released simultaneously with Microsoft Office 2010. Google is jumping in with Chrome, a Web-based OS that the company hopes will make Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy’s 1990s mantra – “The Web is the computer” – come true. iTV and iFlicks? – Wasn’t this supposed to have happened already? Wasn’t the “PCTV” or the “TVPC” supposed to be on sale at Best Buy for $199 by now? There’s a real flurry of activity in the Internet entertainment space, more than at any previous time, and among the early buzz-makers are Apple TV, Boxee, Hulu and Netflix. Hulu has had a particularly good 2009, with remarkable growth and great press, while even the staid, tech-paranoid movie studios are hedging their bets with Epix, a Hulu-style site for flicks. Social game play – Social gaming is a great bet for 2010. Even now, Zynga’s FarmVille game on the Facebook site already has more active users than Twitter, at least according to an “unnamed” Facebook exec. Gargantuan game firm Electronic Arts acquired the Playfish social game site in a multimillion-dollar deal. Of even more interest than the games, perhaps, are the “virtual currencies” that the games use, one of which is said to be more valuable than Iceland’s official money. This supposedly entertainment-oriented lucre, which appears to be “monetizable” to some economists observing the developments, could spill over into the non-virtual economy in a big wait. Mobile pay on the way – This might just be the breakthrough year for the mobile payment market, which has already established a solid foothold in Asia. Big players like PayPal and Amazon are coming on board (quickly) with the PayPalX model and a new mobile payment platform offered to developers, respectively. Twitter’s creator founded a new firm, Square, which has just started to distribute an application that lets merchants accept payments via iPhones, with other platforms to follow. The privacy debate – It’s not a product, it’s not a service, it’s an ongoing discussion and sometimes a heated one. Now that fame is “abundant,” as described in Andy Warhol’s second-most-quoted statement about celebrity, everyone is a star somewhere, to some people. People polish and present their “personal brands” quite freely, yet many still complain about the lack of privacy. It’s hard to have it both ways. The advent of location-based services, the presence of video cameras in personal electronics and the apparently insatiable curiosity people have about actors, models, athletes and media talking heads have all contributed to the rancor. The erosion of personal privacy – or is it the rise of personal autonomy and the leveling of the celebrity playing field? – will fuel continued debate in 2010. About the Atuhor Metro Hi Speed is a leader in internet fax solutions for any sized business. Less expensive and more reliable than traditional fax services – you’ll enjoy the convenience and well as the cost. Visit us today for more information on our small business and corporate fax solutions.
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