Where is the Internet headed?

I mentioned in my previous posts about some thoughts I’ve been having around information becoming more important than the destination and where the Internet is headed in general. Well, here it is – let me know what you think.

So where is the Internet headed? Over the last year or so we’ve seen a number of things change. With the coming years things will (obviously) continue to change and evolve. Here’s my take on what the next wave of how we access news and information is going to be:

First we had web sites, check news on each one, time consuming and a hassle to go out and browse web sites – different navs – different structures – takes time to find what you are looking for. Because it’s a hassle to find new sites, you end up only going to the same sites over and over again.

Then we had email newsletters, which looked to be better, but with spam and the amount of email we get they now seem less effective + its a hassle to have to go to each site to sign-up and manage your subscriptions and you always risk the site sharing your email which equals more spam.

Now, with RSS you can get real time headlines from blogs and news sites. You just access the information that you’re looking for, no more navigating to different web sites or having to manage different email subscriptions.

With RSS readers you can set up multiple feeds from different sites and remain completely anonymous. You are not subscribing (in the traditional sense) to a list, just accessing the feed in real time. As content is posted it shows up instantly. You can also set up filters within your reader so that only relevant content is displayed.

Some RSS Readers now have notification options – when content arrives that meets specific filter criteria you can be notified by email, txt, whatever (check out Bloglines Windows Notifer). Today readers are mostly stand-alone apps (Top RSS readers) however RSS is quickly becoming a standard (MS and Apple have stated that their next operating systems will have built-in RSS readers). With this kind of support it seems obvious that RSS will soon be a standard method for distributing content in all channels and applications (desktop, portals, outlook, etc.).

The problem with this model at the moment though is that you still have to manually find and sort these blogs, although services like Technorati, Feedster and Fagan Finder are making it easier to find what you are looking for. The next evolution will be to apply an automated search concept to these services. A learning search that knows your preferences and what you are interested in. Some settings you make yourself and others are suggested because they meet your criteria. No longer will you have to search out RSS feeds, the system will always be searching and will uses your filters to “pick up” information that is relevant to you. The Blog Portal/RSS Search space is quickly becoming very competitive, companies like Technorati, FeedDemon, Bloglines, Syndic8, Del.icio.us, Blogdex, etc all provide an impressive array of services that relate to blogs and RSS. It’s just a matter of time until this competition leads to automated, personal content delivery. It just makes sense.

Now think about hand held devices and wireless broadband.

Devices are merging: cellphones, cameras, pda, media player and universal wi-fi access (Check out urlgreyhot for updates on cool device stuff). Now imaging the concept of RSS and real-time information down to you hand, at broadband speeds. You are tapped into the information flow of the world. Content, blogs, video, pics, mp3s, you name it. Your filters sift through the data and pick out the information that is relevant to you. (btw, you can already download RSS feeds to your PDA)

Now think about it the other way. In your hand you have a device that records everything, a picture, a video, a message, etc. Imagine being able to record and post into the data stream knowing that people that share your interests will see it instantly. How will this change the way that we obtain news and information? Something happens ½ way around the world, and it is instantly delivered to me? This content includes not just what the newsmakers and marketers of the world want me to see, but the daily occurrences of life itself: an inspirational thought, an innovative idea, a scientific breakthrough, a funny video. This will be a level of sharing and connection that we have never seen before. Imagine what is possible when ideas can be shared across the world in an instant and in an automated and personal fashion, the exponential growth of knowledge will be incredible.

There are people that would say, “people won’t want to share”, but they are simply wrong, we do want to share. We want to share, we want to learn, we want to connect. When the Internet first came along people said it was making us more isolated from each other. But now take a look at a site like Flickr (you can see my photos here). Millions of people posting personal photos, sharing them with the world, talking about them, connecting with each other. Amazing.

The Internet and technology in general is simply a mirror of humanity – it is what we want it to be, it just takes a little bit of time and trial and error to get there.

I don't know about you, but I sure think this is an exciting time to be alive.