Predicting the Internet Future
I remember watching TV shows when I grew up that made a lasting impression on me. Not just the Wild Kingdom shows but also the “Home of Tomorrow” and “In the Future”. I’m sure these sound familiar to many of you.
The shows that looked to the future painted pictures of a bright world where technology was going to make incredible things possible.
Our meals would be cooked in seconds by the power of atomic energy.
Entertainment would be beamed into our homes from space.
Homes would be so easy to move and cheap to build that we could set them down almost anywhere.
We’d also be able to move almost anywhere because we’d work from home over the airwaves.
But when I sat and imagined all these wonderful things I didn’t imagine the way in which all of them have come to pass.
· $20 microwave ovens from the local discount chain.
· Satellite TV channels that show black and white re-runs from my childhood.
· Mobile homes (‘scuse me; manufactured housing) that can be wheeled onto site for no money down and resold several times by the financiers.
· Dial up Internet connections that allow us to explore our limits of patience.
So when I hear people talking about the ways in which the Internet will continue to impact our lives I wonder which version it will turn out to be; the imagination of my childhood or the implementation of their ideas that I see around me now. Even the Bill Gate’s and Steve Job’s of the world must surely have their dreams modified by the stern constraints of manufacturing processes and market demand forces.
I have been reading the released patent application of a group of search engine engineers from Google, (Retrieval Based on Historical Data, December 2003). They talked of many things were already being done and implied several new areas in which they were working. Now, anyone who does anything with patents knows that you always claim as much as possible in order to protect your claim. Patent awards get downsized as you go through the process. But the implications of where they are heading can be amazing.
The development of local search is something that you hear much about in this business. The widening of technology to allow search results to be brought to not only your computer but also your cell phone may bring you the greatest changes. The changes may not just be in the information you get but also the technology you get it through. Gateway and Dell (plus others) want you to use their integrated home media centers for all your entertainment issues; television and Internet both in one package. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the phones tied into this with voice activated control systems that can set limits on options depending on the person talking.
I wonder how the reality will be implemented.
Mike Myklin is an author, a lecturer, and an e-commerce owner specializing in Search Engine Optimization. If you have questions about the Internet and e-commerce, you can send them to him and he will try to answer them in his column. You can also get information on-line at http://www.myklin.com/.
The shows that looked to the future painted pictures of a bright world where technology was going to make incredible things possible.
Our meals would be cooked in seconds by the power of atomic energy.
Entertainment would be beamed into our homes from space.
Homes would be so easy to move and cheap to build that we could set them down almost anywhere.
We’d also be able to move almost anywhere because we’d work from home over the airwaves.
But when I sat and imagined all these wonderful things I didn’t imagine the way in which all of them have come to pass.
· $20 microwave ovens from the local discount chain.
· Satellite TV channels that show black and white re-runs from my childhood.
· Mobile homes (‘scuse me; manufactured housing) that can be wheeled onto site for no money down and resold several times by the financiers.
· Dial up Internet connections that allow us to explore our limits of patience.
So when I hear people talking about the ways in which the Internet will continue to impact our lives I wonder which version it will turn out to be; the imagination of my childhood or the implementation of their ideas that I see around me now. Even the Bill Gate’s and Steve Job’s of the world must surely have their dreams modified by the stern constraints of manufacturing processes and market demand forces.
I have been reading the released patent application of a group of search engine engineers from Google, (Retrieval Based on Historical Data, December 2003). They talked of many things were already being done and implied several new areas in which they were working. Now, anyone who does anything with patents knows that you always claim as much as possible in order to protect your claim. Patent awards get downsized as you go through the process. But the implications of where they are heading can be amazing.
The development of local search is something that you hear much about in this business. The widening of technology to allow search results to be brought to not only your computer but also your cell phone may bring you the greatest changes. The changes may not just be in the information you get but also the technology you get it through. Gateway and Dell (plus others) want you to use their integrated home media centers for all your entertainment issues; television and Internet both in one package. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the phones tied into this with voice activated control systems that can set limits on options depending on the person talking.
I wonder how the reality will be implemented.
Mike Myklin is an author, a lecturer, and an e-commerce owner specializing in Search Engine Optimization. If you have questions about the Internet and e-commerce, you can send them to him and he will try to answer them in his column. You can also get information on-line at http://www.myklin.com/.
posted by Mike Myklin at 8:05 AM
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