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Bothell, Washington, United States
Full-time Art Director with a network of side projects.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Better web experience, shifted web paradigm

I've always questioned the current direction of the web, with its seemingly infinite hyperbole and useless, redundant and outright diabolically plagiarized content streams (such as spam websites, fake aggregators, spambots, etc...) which always contribute a whole lotta' nothing to the web.


Sadly there is a catch-22 to the web: it's wild west territory, where heaps of trash content, sites and more get created, yet its already a hugely important factor for everyone, especially business. The internet is no longer (and hasn't been) an optional conduit for revenue and consumer focus. It is VITAL to most businesses, especially the smaller ones that have little exposure. Bearing this in mind, the web is the last bastion of true freedom, where anyone can do just about anything. This contributes a lot to society as it allows innovative thinking versus the "hivemind" that is prevalent in a dissent-controlled society. It is the very neutrality of web that has given us most of what we now take for granted in the digital world. We stifle dissension at our own peril -- hence the catch-22.

Right now, the web is almost like a landfill, with a few, hugely valuable gemstones hidden about. The only problem is how to locate these gemstones while wading through rubbish.

Hopefully web 3.0 will solve that.

Web 3.0? What about 2.0? What's it all mean?

Web 3.0 is what I (and probably others) consider to be the semantic web.

A web that is more functional because of more robust technology inherent in the webpages themselves, that allow the applications to do more efficient and targeted work.

Web 2.0 was the phase of social networking, trendy (but well-designed) websites, and of course, spammers and "SEO-behemoths." These things are still very much here, and will probably stay for quite some time.

Web 3.0 is an attempt to correct the path of the internet towards a more targeted and useful web. It uses new HTML5, more robust applications with technologies like python and C, and continues to bring dynamism to the forefront. It will help correct blackhat SEO practices, and only those in the know will be using best practices. Hopefully, the days of overzealous link-building to increase SEO versus creating original and useful content is over! But what about all those hard-working chums that worked so hard to get their web rankings #1 in Google through the use of frantic link-building, comment-spamming and other nefarious means!!!? Well I have a few words for you buffoons. These are the same people that pollute our world with no regard because they won't see the effects of it until they are gone. Except, they think it's okay because they pollute in the digital world.

OK. Ending rant now, back to reality.

Along with those technologies is the new trend of API building. I liken API's to legos: they are very modular and can be used to build further creations. From Flickr to Google maps to now, WolframAlpha (and a TON of others) the ability to add meaningful tools to websites is becoming popular. Looking at the web (and a lot of things really) in modular terms is very useful in developing new applications for the web. I think the future of web ideas and website success is going to hinge on things like modularity and usefulness. Pretty and unique designs will still be there, but they need to be inherently intuitive and easy-to-use. After all, technology was supposed to free up our lives, not make them more complex and convoluted. People checking facebook after sex? Come on people, it's time to get real.


1 comment:

Chris Tabor said...

Here's a good article that covers the sort of rant side of this one in more articulate detail: http://powazek.com/posts/2090