Web 3.0 and beyond: the next 20 years of the internet - Silicon Valley has painted a picture of the web in 2030, and it is very powerful – and very sm

Excerpts:
"In a little over a decade, according to the engineers building the internet of tomorrow, the web will be able to connect every aspect of our digital lives - be it a website, an e-mail, or a file on our PC - to every other aspect. It will know, for instance, when you are typing an e-mail, what the subject of the e-mail is, and be able to suggest websites and books as well as documents, photos and videos you have saved that may be relevant to that topic.

It will be achieve this by virtue of the inherent 'intelligence' in the underlying architecture of the internet, they say. In other words, the web is becoming smart."

Alex: The Internet, and the world, is becoming more and more useful. Utilitarian. What the typical person is capable of nowadays (flying around the world, and web searches around the world, as two quick examples), would be unthought of hundreds of years ago. Because the entire curve is shifting up, and all are gaining (collectively, but not equally) it may not appear that we are growing more powerful all the time if we think in comparative terms, because our comparative influence on and with others, may still increase, decrease, or stay the same. When everyone is becoming more powerful, you can still be pretty vulnerable when you are less powerful than most.

and

"Broadly speaking, Mr Spivack says, Web 3.0 refers to the attempt by technologists to overhaul radically the basic platform of the internet so that it 'understands' the near infinite pieces of information that reside on it and draws connections between them.

If Web 2.0 was all about harnessing the collective intelligence of crowds to give information a value - lots of people liked this story so you might too (Digg.com), people who like Madonna also like this artist (last.fm), lots of people linked to this site so that makes it the most relevant (Google's basic PageRank algorithm) - then Web 3.0 is about giving the internet itself a brain."

Alex: Nova Spivack is a smart, smart, smart guy. Like him, I try not to be not where the Internet has been, but where it is going. And he's helping to drive it there.

and

"Some of the world's largest technology companies - Nokia, Apple and MySpace - all made announcements embracing the idea of open platforms, suggesting that the web will become a place where much more mixing and matching of different services will be permitted.

Alongside this will come tmore mature virtual worlds, or what Silicon Valley's faithful - perhaps to get away from connotations of the computer game - have started referring to as 'immersive environments'.

"The web is going to be a much more immersive, a much more multi-dimensional environment," said John Doerr, one of the founding board members at Google and a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which invests heavily in the tech sector.

Mr Doerr's presentation touched on a range of areas that would be affected by the web, in particular green technologies and the energy sector, as well as disease therapy, and he gave stark warning to any firm that was not willing to embrace emerging trends. "In any real revolution there are winners and losers. The internet wasn't some kind of 'kum ba ya' thing," he said."

Alex: John Doerr is (of course) also a genius. There are alot of elements here. For one, I am also focusing on immersive and green elements (some of my Internet endeavors). I believe that thus far the Internet has largely served to inform or sell us. Increasingly, it will also be used as an experience (social networks one precursor) including entertainment (music sites a precursor).

Stealth Startup Wix To Help Users Build Flash Websites

Stealth Startup Wix To Help Users Build Flash Websites

Excerpt:
"We’ve seen a lot of site design tools that take the need for programming skills out of the picture: Synthasite, Weebly, Jimdo and Google Page Creator. All have limitations, ranging from ease of use to business models (some of them require fees, ads and/or links back to the service). And none of them allow for easy creation of Flash-based content."

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/22/stealth-startup-wix-to-help-users-build-flash-websites/

Alex: Existing Internet functions will become easier and easier over time. Of course new, more complex and combined (and also integrated) functions will also continually appear.

"So easy, even your parents can do it!"

MySpace Announces New Gaming Channel

MySpace Announces New Gaming Channel

Excerpt:
"Tomorrow MySpace will announce the upcoming launch of MySpace Games - a new area of the site where MySpace users can play casual interactive games with others. The site will initially be powered by Oberon Media, with other game providers to be added over time. Games will be embeddable into MySpace profiles."

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/22/myspace-announces-new-gaming-channel/

Alex: The Internet will continue developing both its virtual and gaming elements. Star Trek like "holodecks" anyone?

Games also increase stickiness (and length of time on the site). I'm sure News Corp. is very well aware of this!!

Doerr Wants To Take Down The Telcos (And Save The Planet)

Doerr Wants To Take Down The Telcos (And Save The Planet)

Excerpt:
"Doerr is on the board of Google, which has committed to bid $4.6 billion in the auction, and is an investor in Frontline Wireless, which is also a key player in helping to shape the auction’s rules. Doerr explains why this fight is so important:

This is the last auction. It is the last opportunity in our lifetime (for the United States). Otherwise, there will continue to be a duopoly. A lot is at stake. How will the next Internet be controlled?"

Alex: When the stakes are so high, the players (partcipants) who become involved are from the highest levels!! Wireless is a critical component.

YieldBuild Will Try To Optimize AdSense, Pay You More

YieldBuild Will Try To Optimize AdSense, Pay You More

Excerpt:
"YieldBuild, a new service from the company that launched HubPages, will take a stab at optimizing those ad units for you. It’s similar to the Rubicon Project, a highly rated ad optimization platform in beta that finds the best mix of ad network and demographic data. However, YeildBuild has a focus on layout and design."

Alex: This post (to me) gets to the notion of continuous and discountinuous innovation. I am not familar with these services noted, but wonder in this area (and others) how much progress will involve new processes or technologies vs. how much will be improvements (incremental or otherwise) in existing processes or technologies.

Facebook Experiments With Ads Targeting People’s Interests

Facebook Experiments With Ads Targeting People’s Interests

Excerpt:
"The big promise of advertising on social networks has always been the ability to target members by their own self-proclaimed interests and demographics. Facebook, as expected, has quietly taken a step in that direction with its Facebook Flyers ads (these are sidebar advertising widgets that Facebook still controls, as opposed to the majority of ad inventory on Facebook that falls under its deal with Microsoft). In terms of revenues, these Flyers probably don’t amount to much yet, but this is one Faecbook experiment worth keeping an eye on."

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/22/facebook-experiments-with-ads-targeting-peoples-interests/

Alex Hammer: Appropriate (and what is and isn't appropriate will be an ongoing matter) targeted advertising is one of the keys in the future Internet. It is one important element in the area of personalization, that will be increasingly large in its effects. I'll have more to say about this (likely much much more) over time.