The “World Wide Web”

Before bed last night, I was reading a book about writing. In the introduction, they mention the Internet as a growing source of information. They go on to say that one of the coolest features of the Internet is the “World Wide Web,” a series of inter-linking pages of information.
Of course, you can explore these pages by clicking on hyperlinks or by using search engines to search by category or “keyword.”

What struck me as funny was that the search engines mentioned were Yahoo and Alta Vista – no mention of Google (because at the time the book was published – about 10 years ago, Google had barely gotten off the ground)!

I know, I know, there’s nothing crazy in anything that I’ve experienced. It was just one of those experiences that – like hearing your favorite song from high school on the “classic rock” station – that makes you realize just how far things have come in a relatively short period of time.

What will the “World Wide Web” look like 10 years from today? What new companies will emerge?

With all of these Internet companies utilizing API’s, my guess is there is going to be an explosion of new applications created by individual users.

These “mash-ups” have the potential to take the best features from every application and combine them OR to use them in a totally new way. Websites that seem like time wasters today may become the killer business apps of tomorrow!

Whatever happens, it’s going to be an exciting ride and incredibly fun to look back on… except you’ll probably be reading about it on your Kindle instead of in a book!