We have seen the internet grow up quite quickly and the technology used to power websites has become so amazingly powerful that the internet is no longer made up of glorified business cards, but highly programmable interfaces for a global community.
Web 2.0, as we know it, has definitely been the age for social platforms to emerge and set the foundations for a socially intertwined semantic web. Seamlessly integrating the world’s people and their social lives into a mashable platform now known as social networks.
Phase two has seen Google Maps and Google Earth grow up so rapidly that streetview really blew our minds the first time we saw it. GPS devices have become a dime a dozen and A-GPS enabled mobile phones are fast becoming mainstream paired with the rapid release of location based services on mobile platforms. The emergence of a contextual web is not a dream; it’s becoming real. Profile driven location based applications have the potential to change the way we interact with technology, with each other and with the world.
We interact with the web on so many levels, that leaving behind a line of crumbs that collectively define who, where, when, how and what we interface with online is ultimately enough to give web strategists wet dreams. Profiling engines have already started emerging in drips and drabs. The future of the web will be powered with contextual relevance built on user specific content and interactiveness.
In two years’ time, when you realise that Web 3.0 is actually contextual, remember: you heard it here first!
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26 Responses to “The future of the Web is contextual!”
Good insight. I think there will be quite a few unexpected (and positive) surprises on the road ahead. Keep it up!
Good article dude, well done.
An interesting follow up would be how and if contextual web will influence online advertising as advertisers seek more publishers that can offer highly targeted demographics based on segmented and intelligent profiling. Further interest would be what the contextual web opens up in terms of development and new generation social tools.
@Ray, Yves, Punky, Dhashinie, Takaz, Sibusiso - Absolutely, change is inevitable and most times this leads to better things. Exciting times lay ahead!
@ChrisM - Absolutely, during the web 2.0 bubble, content certainly did prove to be king, and still is largely. But the management of all this content will become more and more vital as users become fed up of the bombardment of redundant, irrelevant information on the web. Getting what you want, when you want it and how you want it is what will truly make for the ultimate web experience!
@Anand - Contextual advertising has already seen phase 1 with the success of Google’s Adsense. Web based profiling will become more mainstream as platforms develop to help aggregate content more and more. Think along the lines of social network aggregation, etc. Ownership of this profiling data will become the key to web power.
I see a stronger role being played by browsers as we move toward this highly customizable, user-targeted web experience that the future holds for us. Google entering the browser market is only the first sign of this!
Mr Dee, Lovely Insight ! someone can see through huh !
i totally agree, and the way social networks work amuses me.. i mean a social network becomes HOT n the next thing u know its NOT ( such as Hi5, Friendster and Even myspace losing lots of its Marketshare to Facebook) as technology it self can be easily and often imitated and copied, what will make the difference is the services they are providing as CONTEXT .. and i love the way you did link up this strategic point even to browsers and the whole web world in general..
although i think we are up to too many surprises in two years time .. .. technology is always in a race against time.. and this virtual world is not less crazy than our own one
Mohammed Al-Amoodi on January 13th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Dee, as your friend I heard you say this a few times and long ago as well. I am glad you are now sharing your insights with everybody.
As usual, I look forward to your articles and predictions.
I am not a web junkie, but your article is so interesting and thought provoking that I cannot wait to read more of your articles, which I am sure will keep me updated on the future of the web.
@Mohammed - I completely agree, social networks come and go but those who have staying power are those that are investing in profiling engines. The legal aspect of these profiling engines will definitely be an interesting topic to follow.
@Leon & Vera - Thanks for the comments. I look forward to having you comment on my future articles
But what IS context in terms of marketing? Sure the browser can determine certain information (location, screen resolution, etc), Google can track what I searched for yesterday, email farms in Russia can find my email address, and Amazon knows a little about what books I like. But what does that tell a marketer about me…really. Context can be very personal and can change very quickly over time. Also - even as the marketers are having their Web 3 wet dreams - there are people out there are writing software and plugins that prevent data profiling.
Examples of context gone wrong - I’ve just completed the form to post my thoughts here. So the marketer would assume that from the info I’ve posted I’m male and I’m into techie stuff and that in future Google Chrome should serve me ads and search results for MensHealth and GeekWeekly. But maybe I’m female and I’m only on this site to find a quick bit of info for a boring article I’m only writing cos I need the money. So the context would be completely inaccurate. I might be on holiday here in Cape Town and get back to wherever after my surf around the SA web to find my inbox filled with SA spam. Wrong context. The marketer might do some research to find, horror of horrors, that I’m not on Facebook. What would the context be? That I don’t exist?
Best thing about Web 3 is it might mean the end of Web 2! And you know Web 2 is breathing its last when you see “Share” icons on the homepage of FNB. What the **** were they thinking…am I really going to share that? With Web 3 at least they might know me well enough not to display those icons to me in the first place.
I’ve heard this from you for awhile now. With the extensive development of social networks and the dependency of our real life networking on such networks does seem to prove that your predictions could indeed be very accurate. I do think that the web is very much evolving and we might be in for some surprises along the way.
What is scary is the amount of exposure and the personal consequences of a contexual web. It would be interesting to see how legal frameworks and privacy on the web must deal with the realities of this. But i say, as scary as it maybe in some aspects, what you are predicting is somewhat inevitable!
Hey Dee! Interesting article. I wish I had read this prior to our discussions. I can now clearly understand your thinking. I look forward to your future follow up articles.
Nice one, Dee. Tying into this … DARPA is funding CALO, something that assists you by making info recommendations to you (and even act on your behalf) based on your wholistic context in cyberspace. See http://orionspur.za.net/?p=295
@Dee - That’s a really great point, content is king, but the management of that content is even higher than king, I never thought of it that way, nice one!
@steve - I think that the profiling future of the web will certainly not be isolated to only one transaction. Content sharing, content tagging and categorization of content are all filing methods for profile generation. The more that a user interacts with the web, the more data crumbs are left behind. The aim of course would be to take months worth of data to create a user profile that is always changing as the user interacts more with the web.
FNB share feature, no comment!
@IslandChic - Thanks for the comment and the support! This opinion is not one that I have just thought of, it has been something that I have seen emerge over many months, if not years and I stand by my theory
@Gary - I’m glad that you see what I’m talking about. It will certainly be a great help with your web projects. As the boy scouts moto says, ” Be prepared!”
@Selwyn - My Zoolander “Blue Steel” look needs more pouting. It needs work! Thanks for the comment.
@Phuti - Thanks so much for the comment!
@Rupert - Absolutely, these services have already started emerging. The truest champion will be he who owns the platform for data consolidation that will be used in this profiling. Contextual web services can certainly not work in isolation, like current web profiling engines. One day, my friend, one day!
@ChrisM - Thanks mate! Content management has already started to emerge with web 2.0 goodies like RSS feeds, Digg, Muti and even Afrigrator is a shift toward a consolidated content platform. We are not far from this shift. It’s close enough to smell! Brace yourself my friend, things will change fast!
I will seriously be keen to hear your thoughts on how online marketing and SEO will adapt based on my predictions of this web evolution!
It is a pleasure to program for the web with such incredible technology now available.
I can remember as early as 3 or 4 years ago trying to solve problems related to web-programming that, these days, get solved within seconds due to the technologies available.
Google documents is a fine example of this. Ease of use - as if one were working directly on an application on his desktop.
[…] me feature on the Mail & Gaurdian owned blog called Techleader with my article titled, ” The Future of the Web is Contextual!” and my recent article on MoralFibre where I reviewed a coffee […]
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Dee Chetty is a South Africa- and India-educated computer junkie. Focusing on strategy and new developments, Dee finds himself pushing the limits of innovation with his ideas. Dee loves open-source, mobile technologies and location-driven applications.
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Good insight. I think there will be quite a few unexpected (and positive) surprises on the road ahead. Keep it up!
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