Monday, August 08, 2005

The Future of the Web

Here's a pretty interesting hypothesis on how the Internet will evolve. Disregarding the companies mentioned and the corporate consolidation that is anticipated, the overall idea of the short film is very true: we are living in a world of peer production, whereby the users are creating the media they will consume. This is resulting in a massive amount of information, and machines will be personalizing this information for us.

SEOBlackHat also makes an interesting comment on how the technology needed to create that world will evolve; the claim that black hat tactics -- which we can loosely define as tactics designed to manipulate search engine results through automation -- are the evolutionary force needed to ensure that companies have the technology needed to create the sort of personalization that the future will require. While the idea of black hat manipulation angers some and is often derided as unethical, its evolutionary value is hard to deny.

The world is changing faster than ever before. If you're an entrepreneur on the web, this means one thing: pay attention. Markets come and go quickly. Very quickly.