The Changing Landscape of Social Networking & the Future of the Internet

I use Google Reader to subscribe to various news, blogs and podcasts. I also subscribe to many of the same sources via Facebook and Twitter. These days, I've noticed I spend more time on Facebook and less on Google Reader. Facebook puts my social, political and other interests all in one place. Social networking is no longer purely a social experience. The lines between the social, the personal and the private are becoming blurred.



This fact is further compounded by Facebook ingenious use of advertising space. They not only poll your own profile "likes", but also those of your friends. Marketers know their psychology. They understand that it's quite likely you share a common interest with your friends. If your friends are interested in travel, you will probably see advertisements in the margin selling travel gear.

When you use Facebook to monitor news & politics, the article or video is being "shared" with you. It is assumed you will want to "share" that same piece with your own Facebook friends. It is almost like watching TV together. With social media, the world can come to you without any effort of your own.

In the future, I predict the entire shape of the Internet will change completely. Consider also Google's brilliant strategy. Your Google Id can be used on YouTube and even sites not owned by Google. When you buy products from certain vendors, your purchased history is visible on your Google Account page. This OpenId concept potentially means you need only a single login for the entire Internet. It's like your own personal RFID chip.

A universal login does present problems. The majority of people share their passwords with their friends and many use passwords which are easy to guess. Spybots scour for open ports and can very easily hack into your account, especially is weak passwords are used. In the future, this problem will go away. Biometrics is a well-developed field. The ability to log in to a personal PC with a finger print has been around for more than a decade. I find it surprising that computer manufacturers and system integrators have not siezed upon this technology to market a more secure business machine. Once biometric readers become standard equipment, web site operators will quickly adopt the technology themselves, requiring your finger print be used for authentication combined with other measures.

While these things sound a bit scary, I don't believe "big brother" is the goal. Your surfing and purchasing habits will be like a personal identity card. It will be primarily machines which will access your information and only the information authorized for a specific site. Users will be able to access their entire web history in one place. The Internet itself is becoming social. As the technology becomes more finely tuned, users will increasingly come to rely on fewer and fewer sites for the information and needs. There will no longer be thousands of websites, but only a few hundred. These few hundred will be uniquely able to provide finely tuned services to meet the needs of a large, diverse audience.

Security issues will become a thing of the past--unfortunately, along with anonymity. Before accessing the Internet, every user will be issued an ID by a global authenication board. This ID will be used along with a biometric scan just to access the Internet. We will no longer need anti-virus software. Hacking and the spread of viruses will become a tool for only a small group of high-tech global elites with very big goals, such as International terrorism.

Using the Internet in the future, will be much more efficient and less time consuming. You will need only to login in one place to see everything that is relevant to you personally. You will not be bothered by annoying pop-ups and banner ads. No longer will you need Favorites and Bookmarks. Everything will be simple and streamlined.

Advertising "bots" will use your Internet history to target advertising, as they already do. In the future, this software will become highly specialized with the ability to do complex profiling. The day is coming when you will no longer need to go shopping. The products you need will come to you. When you post on Facebook that you've taken a new job in New York, apartments in your price range will be displayed as you surf. The apartments advertised will also fit your lifestyle. This same technology will be used to deliver only news stories and other content which interest you.