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Internet, Search and Web Futures

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 September 2006, 12:00 CDT

The publication of the Pew Report on the future of the internet appears to have excited a great deal of interest. Most of the emphasis in the news reports centers on the fact that, by the year 2020, the internet will be made up of billions of devices, but what is less well publicized is the question of what will happen to all the content on the internet.

Of course, the future of the internet is assured; that almost goes without saying. When one considers the use to which the internet is put, then predicting its demise would be like walking round the streets with a placard saying the end of the world is nigh (everyone would cross the road to avoid you). What is more contentious, however, is this blurring of the lines between the internet and the world wide web. To most people they are interchangeable terms, but in reality they serve completely different purposes.

The web (to give it its shortened title) is an information space, and the internet is a transport mechanism that allows people to access this information space. The two are not interchangeable, and the real problem is not the future of the internet, but of the web. There is a requirement to gain some form of control over the latter. Although this idea will have people throwing their hands up in horror, the fact is that unless control is introduced then the web (not the internet) will die an unnatural death.

You simply have to ask one basic question: how much information does one need? The answer is that one needs information that is current, accurate, and provides an answer to the question asked. This latter point is important. The vast majority of web use is to answer a question - surfing the web is a pointless pastime that not many people undertake. Therefore, the web content needs to be controlled in order that the questions people ask are answered correctly.

Is this censorship of the web? No, not at all. Is it removal of outdated and inaccurate information? Yes, almost certainly.

The vast majority of people use the web for about six months before they have a set of favorites marked for the areas that they are interested in. The rest of the web is irrelevant. Perhaps, instead of looking at internet 2, we should be looking at web 2. Web 1 could be those websites that have content that is demonstrably used by people (which means it is demonstrably useful), and web 2 could be for all the rest.

A start to this perhaps could be for the popular search engines to invent a filter that allowed the user to only look at information, rather than being given an opportunity to buy something. Perhaps control of the web is already in place; only it's in the hands of the moneychangers.

Type "pigs with wings" into Google, and you will find that you can buy "pigs with wings" on eBay. The only other question to ask is whether they can actually fly or not.

Source: OpinionWire by Butler Group (www.butlergroup.com)

Source: Datamonitor

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