The next step of the World Wide Web (part 1)

Foreword

Good day, dear habravchane!

I want to bring to your attention the article of my friend, which he decided to publish (with my help), after reading the relevant article on WEB 3.0 . And although the article by the distinguished Begetan is very worthy, in my article my friend would like to draw your attention to several other aspects of the modern Internet and its trends. I want to immediately draw your attention to the fact that the article does not contain technical information and is a kind of “reasoning” on the subject of the Internet industry, which is aimed at “exposing” a certain problem. So the article under the cut!

Part 1

What do we know about the network? I think everyone has heard about the fact that Facebook can be considered the third country in the world after the “population” after China and India. At one time, Apple 's i'-nation actually brought the company back to life. The number of search queries processed by Google on a daily basis has increased more than 11 times in the last 5 years alone, and the Internet media is steadily tugging the advertising budgets of global corporations, forcing their offline competitors to lose ground.
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Now the success of the Internet industry is obvious. However, the purpose of this article is not a dry enumeration of all the achievements of the Internet and the singing of praises, but an attempt to formulate a vector for its future development. Starting around 2007, such articles are not uncommon, and many famous Internet figures have already expressed their thoughts about Web 3.0 . Stop, where did this figure come from? ..

It makes no sense for me to fantasize, so I will use the system that is generally considered generally accepted. Its meaning boils down to the fact that the World Wide Web is developing step by step and at the given time we have the third in a row, but the second by the “version” of the Internet - Web 2.0 . Very technologically, is not it? I would not like to retell the history of the emergence of this term - anyone at will can easily find all the necessary information in Wikipedia . However, it should be noted that this concept implies a rather general tendency of development of the world wide web and, by and large, has little to do with the development of technologies themselves. Yes Yes! Today we will talk not about technologies, but about a new sense that is introduced into the world with their help.

First, we will try to very briefly describe each previous step in the development of the network:

1. Web 0.0 (pre-web) - the first attempts to create a computer network to exchange information.
2. Web 1.0 - distribution of the network, many informational sites, the content of which is created by administrators, static data, visitors and users can only “absorb” information. The first companies open their offices in the network.
3. Web 2.0 - socialization of the network, users have the opportunity to directly participate in creating content, anyone can become a source of information. Dynamic data. We all understood that the Internet is not just an information space, but we are all connected through the world wide web. Global brands "climb" into the network.
4. Web 3.0 -?

Let's take a look. The main achievements of Web 2.0 were not so much technology, but a new level of interaction and user integration into the network, as well as new types of content and ways to create it. The Internet has finally become a stable and fast-growing industry, with billions in turnover and huge capitalization of Internet companies. Now everyone is sitting on Facebook , posting on Twitter and YouTube , googling information and so on. Well, OK. What's next? After all, the very possibility of instant information exchange, data “in the cloud” and other delights of modern technologies are more likely means to achieve a certain global goal than an end in itself.

If we summarize the main trend of the modern Internet as much as possible, we can describe it with one phrase - “the transfer of the real world into the virtual world” . In the real world, we always had friends; now we have virtual friends. At all times there were communities, parties, groups of people united by one idea or interests. Now it's all on the net. Newspapers, magazines, radio and television, all these classic media are moving into virtuality. People began to read less books, because they are in pdf or audio format. People are present in the network, even more than in reality. There they are a little prettier, much more self-confident, a little more successful and educated. All this is wonderful, but it reminds too much of a certain form of a “matrix”, is not it? We always try to save some real time, then to spend it in virtuality.


This is progress in its purest form - fast, technological, irresponsible. The fact that a couple of years ago was a global trend is now becoming obsolete. Humanity embarked on the rails of progress, dispersed its trolley and rushing at breakneck speed, simultaneously completing the construction of the railway track ahead. At the same time, no one really knows where these rails lead us all. The Internet as a sponge absorbs millions of terabytes of information, and the most successful services are engaged in its structuring and transformation into a readable format. For what? Or is it better to say for whom, they do it? Everything here is very prosaic - for those who pay for all this fun.

Here we come to a very important side of the entire Internet industry. To the question, where does the money come from? Why are venture and strategic investors investing millions of dollars in Internet companies that seemingly do not produce or sell anything? How do these companies achieve such giant capitalization rates? A question that undoubtedly arose among many of us.

To answer it, you need to understand that the main achievement of the modern Internet industry, in terms of building new business models, is to create a model in which the user receives some value (service, information, capabilities), paying for it because he does not consider particularly valuable. For example, his time, attention, click, information that he leaves in the network. All this of course is not money, and many call such corporations as Google , “corporations of good”, precisely because most of their services are free. However, it is obvious that this type of payment may be even more valuable than crumpled green pieces of paper. After all, in fact, in such a model we trade in ourselves, information about ourselves, our preferences, thoughts, desires. All this is subsequently delegated to those who are willing to pay.

We have to admit that the Internet is increasingly turning into another media channel, which, like all previous ones, is designed to direct and control the public on the one hand, and to sell and advertise on the other. Think about it, because the monetization of the vast majority of successful Internet projects, one way or another is based on advertising, as well as sales of audience profiles and statistics. Isn't all the classic media doing this?

Even 7 years ago I would not have thought that the Internet, with all its potential and power, was destined to become another media channel, albeit a bit more high-tech. And yet I am deeply convinced that this step is only a transitional stage, a necessary step that must be passed in order to ascend to a new height. Further discussion on this topic in the second part of the article.

ps A little about the author: a professional software engineer with many years of experience in the industry. He worked both in projects of large companies (Awaya, Teleca, Nortel, Motorola, Kyocera), and in small Internet startups. Currently actively engaged in the development of Live Streaming Media industry in the network.