The Future Web

As Richard MacManus wrote in the article “10 Future Web Trends,” today’s era of the Web is commonly referred to Web 2.0, and current popular attractions include search features, social media, music, video, and content aggregation, to name a few. This three year-old article, made several predictions about the future of the Web: virtual worlds would become more mainstream, mobile Web would be the “Next Big Thing,” apps would become ubiquitous, video would serve a larger role, and personalization would be trendy. These forecasts have already been realized - with 7 years to go!

In a more recent article (2009), “The Future of the Web: Where will We be in Five Years?” I found some more interesting predictions about the future of the Web:

• More Horizontal Scrolling Content: I like the way horizontal scrolling content looks aesthetically and it makes sense because more people have larger computer monitors.
• More Collaborative and Real-Time Content: There are already some services in place for collaboration (ex: Google Docs), and they will only become easier and more efficient to use. This is exciting because many people’s jobs may become faster and easier.
• Better Adoption of Web Standards: As a new Web designer, mobile devices are one of my greatest fears. The widespread use of multiple mobile web browsers will force us to use standards-based design so that Web sites display properly on all platforms.
• Even More Social Apps: Is this possible?
• SEO Will Become Less Important: More Web users will instead rely on recommendations and social media.

I can already see the paths in motion for several of these predictions. It will be interesting to see how long (or should I say short?) it takes for these to become reality.