Ello,

 

I've been pondering lately on what the next 'rage' on the internet will be. There might even be a few rages I haven't heard of or taken part in. I totally missed out on the ebay rage. But caught on when myspace came to life and then after being harassed by invites to join facebook I finally gave in and became another facebook zombie. I've even grown really fond of you tube.

 

In my opinion I think these websites did really well because they supplied a way to keep the bored entertained. It also allows individuals to take the spotlight in some way and tell "the world" about themselves. So I wonder if the next rage will also just fulfil the same desire or will it stem out a bit into new horizons.

 

Would be nice to hear some expert opinions on this. Or even wild opinions on what could still be coming.

 

Does anyone have any premonitions on the future of the internet?

 

Keep sane(ish?)

 

Cari.

If i knew what the new rage would be, i'd be making sure I was a part of it and make money

Whatever it will be, it will be simple and easy to use, cause it will need to attract lots of people to become a rage.

Before I tell you what the next big craze is, do you know about one that missed?

Where are you now? should have been massive, but it missed because its hard-to-use, a bit ugly (or at least not streamlined in design) and sends WAY too many annoying emails to folk.

 

With all these crazes though we have got all of our bases covered, music (myspace/iTunes/p2p), sales(ebay/amazon), social networks(facebook,myspace,bebo,linked-in), images (flickr/blipfoto/deviantArt) and video (googlevideo/youtube).

Theres even the social network/porn/video site youporn! And I've missed loads!

 

I have heard that the next big thing will be a social networking site targeted at the baby boom generation... 40/50+ers with more money than things to spend it on. Problem is that the whole point of big crazes is they appeal to everyone. Not everyone likes films, but on youtube everyone can find a video that interests them.

 

However, I think that where these things are all heading to is location-aware mobile applications. We are seeing things like twitter and facebook mobile start to take hold, but this is just the beginning.

The next big thing, I think, will be Where are you know? Live! or Google Maps Live! - Applications that use your mobile phone to tell folk where you are! Of course if there is a CCTV camera near by it will display the feed of you walking down the street... hehe.

 

Ok .. maybe thats a bit far fetched and in the future, but its the model you have to think along, how can you tie an online social network to a mobile location-aware application? For example, a cinema goers social network so you can use your mobile to check whats on at the local cinema AND see what all your *friends* are saying about it!

 

Another next big thing I've heard will be a streaming audio service for iPods, where you buy a subscription to an audio service and can listen to as many tracks as you want to for the period by streaming them, but you never own them or have a hard copy.

 

Maybe I'm giving away too many of my ideas, but one girl can't do them all!

Of course if there is a CCTV camera near by it will display the feed of you walking down the street... hehe.

 

Ok .. maybe thats a bit far fetched

You do live in the UK, don't you? The second most surveilled country on earth. (First prize goes to N Korea). Trust me, unless you live in rural Scotland, there IS a CCTV camera watching you, and it's not nearly as far fetched as you think.

 

I think you're right about the direction of these trends though, Eris. I can imagine that very soon, TV, radio, internet, telephone, satellite etc will all be available on a single device which combines all these media into various applications.

 

Look out - you'll be headhunted by a future solutions company if you're not careful

WDF is the next craze! =D

I'm not sure what the next craze will be, but I think it'll likely involve some type of media.

Ok .. maybe thats a bit far fetched and in the future, but its the model you have to think along, how can you tie an online social network to a mobile location-aware application? For example, a cinema goers social network so you can use your mobile to check whats on at the local cinema AND see what all your *friends* are saying about it!

 

Indeed! I've been thinking along the same lines actually. I have a few ideas on how I'd like to anticipate the next rage and catch the wave as it comes and not after it's left.

 

A lot of rages that once were hot are now sizzling out a bit. Myspace is rarely spoken of. Even facebook is dying out a bit. It could just be that down here in South Africa the internet is not as much of an every day norm but rather a luxury, or it could be the same everywhere.

 

In general it seems people like to be part of the latest fashion, whether it be clothes, gadgets or websites, and then once they tire of it they move on to the next fashion. I suppose the only way to counteract that is adaptation. It's in my opinion probably why Microsoft insist on bringing out a new version of Windows every so many years. If they render the old one obsolete or out of date people HAVE to buy the new one to 'keep up with the times'.

 

Anyway, I'm deviating, back to the cellphones and mobile contraptions. Mobile phones are HUGE in South Africa. Everyone has to have one, and for some odd reason no one has truly entered the cellphone applications market here. It's highly highly disregarded. We have a application called Mxit that took over quite rapidly. I can easily say hundreds of thousands of people use it. It basically allows users to register and then chat via GPRS, which is very cheap for us. You can access it from your phone www.mxit.com/wap if I remember correctly, or you can use it through your computer by downloading mpowerplayer.

 

So where a notebook computer down here is about R6 000 - R10 000. Which is probably an estimated amount of just under 1000 pounds to just over. A cell phone costs once off R1000 - R2000 or a monthly amount over two years of about R100, which is more affordable. So cell phones are the preferred form of technology (in our economy at least).

 

Also there is an electricity crises in the world. So gadgets that use less electricity I can only guess will increase in sales over the next few years.

 

Perhaps something else that might work is something of a Yellow Pages meets FaceBook, where you can search for things you'd like to do, like go to a restaurant, and then the application calls up the information on the restaurant and then perhaps directions and coordinates. That's just something I'd personally find extremely useful. It's quite irritating having to search and then to view individual websites. It would be really great if one could just type in a place and find out about it and where it is. I tried using Google Earth once, very confusing and time consuming.

 

And imagine if that could also be made into a cellphone application and your friend calls and says "hey lets do something new" and you check the application for "What's New In Your Area" and you can read of the latest places and check out a review and further on view the website of the palce if you're still really interested. And after finding all this out you tell your friend "Yeah, I read about this new place we could go to..."

 

If it were a free service for users but places on there get charged a small advertising fee, I think it might catch on. Though for all I know this could already exist, but just not in South Africa yet.

 

Hmmm... If I were better at wml and scripting I might actually try it. I'm still trying to get through JavaScript though... baby steps.

 

Cari.

 

(Oh PS I just checked out that WAYN site after I posted all this, it seems slightly like what I just mentioned... just a bit confusing to use... K.I.S.S. is my motto )

Here is an awesome site that hasn't quite gotten the attention it should from travelers:

 

http://www.couchsurfing.com/

 

thought it was pretty cool and could get big.

Theres even the social network/porn/video site youporn!

I lol'ed hard.

I reckon it'll be rounded corners on boxes and fischer price colour schemes across all websites as obligatory.

 

 

but seriously interesting question, i've never been into social networking sites, but many a forum i've joined over the years.

 

i reckon it could be 3d online shopping galleries/malls. problem here in the uk is sloooooow bandwidth throttled/constricted connections. but out in japan, sweden, netherlands etc they run at speeds we've not heard of yet.

 

3d art is the next big thing (if it's not already) in graphics and i think we'll see that to some extent define a revolutionary shift online - may be some years off though.

 

MMPO gaming merging with shopping, take your Avatar down to Iceland and stock up on frozen factory farmed chicken legs.

 

edit...i think what we are beginning to see is merely a precurssor to a real shift in how society and technology combine, computing speeds ar egetting so fast, if the infrastructure for broadband improves to the level it is elsewhere (above) then things like facebook will be simply blown away.

digg.com is the rage at the moment

Possibly this... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/technolo...nd-myspace.html

You do live in the UK, don't you? The second most surveilled country on earth. (First prize goes to N Korea). Trust me, unless you live in rural Scotland, there IS a CCTV camera watching you, and it's not nearly as far fetched as you think.

I'm well aware I just said that so as not to freak people out And yes you're always watched, but by some fat dude with tea and kit kats, it's not all connected and online in a way that an application like twitter or facebook or WAYN could link into YET (see next comment).

 

Look out - you'll be headhunted by a future solutions company if you're not careful

Already happened I wrote my dissertation on this stuff

I reckon it'll be rounded corners on boxes and fischer price colour schemes across all websites as obligatory.

HAHAHAHAAA that is good. Well done, sir! A taste of dystopia indeed!