18.2.10

Future Internet Trends

I was interviewed for an article about cutting edge directions in the Internet industry. They asked specifically if I could suggest something that wasn't a hot topic yet, but might be in the near future.

That's a tough question to answer while at the same time being something fun to think about.

Basically I boiled it down to a question:

There is this realization dawning on the computing industry that computers really need to do much more to accomodate people than they have done until now. The iPad being the prime mover in this vicinity, at least currently.

The goal of the iPhone and iPad is to simplify the interface to the point that it is intuitive and is lost behind the raw functionality of the app, or of the net.

My question is, when will people wake up and standardize on a subset of interfaces for websites that also accomodate people?

We aren't there yet, in essence we're lightyears behind the progress that's been made on the client side with the advent of transparent net terminals like the iPad, iPhone and everything else aimed at competing with them.

[ps. I think the Flash trash-talkers are wrong and there's no reason to be so against a piece of software to the point of banning it from certain hardware, but in terms of contributing to the inconsistency of web interface, Flash allows for some of the worst offenders.]

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