I want to look into the future again. Ten years ago, I said MS Office would be offered for free one day. They called me a fool. Few years back, when I was one of the first people in the Czech Republic to experiment with HDR photography, I said HDR would eventually be built-in directly into the cameras. And got laughed at (little did I know that HDR would be featured in mobile phones as well). Last year, I wrote an article on how digital cameras will become extinct, which still stirs up controversy even today.
Now let me have my own little forecast: In a few years time, the web will not exist. At least not in the way we know it today. Your everyday ritual, when you open up a browser and type the address, won’t be here any more.
What makes me say this? Well, let’s face it – nobody really likes the web. We just need the information, but most people will rather use an app than the web. Do you check Facebook on your mobile device through the web, or do you use its app? If you had a choice to use an app for what you need to do, or do it through the web, what would you do? I believe, for most people, using an app is just so much easier. We access information from our mobile devices, TVs and other gadgets. Using apps. And this will become more and more intense in time. We’ll have apps on our devices for just about anything.
Sure, web will stick around for some time. As a platform and a safety net, but not as WWW.
Enjoy your favorite browser, while you still need it.