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Top 6: How the Internet will change in the next decade

The last 10 years has seen an explosion of new technologies in software, hardware, and iWare (a term I just coined to mean websites and web apps). So much of an explosion that I don't think anyone in 1999 could have come close to guessing what the internet would look like 10 years from then (today).

The last 10 years has brought us a growth from 50 million internet users to an estimated 550 million users (1100% growth), top-of-the-line 56k modems became obsolete and replaced with Cable Internet and Fiber Optics, the rise and fall of Napster (rise, thanks to college dorm residents - fall, thanks to Lars Ulrich of Metallica), video conferencing and VoIP has become common thanks to services like Skype and iChat, Google (ok, that was 1998, but it didn't pick up until a year or two after going live), and the overtaking of the internet by its own users via over 180 million blogs, 750,000 Wikipedia articles, over 100 million YouTube videos, 350 million Facebook users, and 27.3 million tweets per day on Twitter.

So, where do I think the internet is headed in the next 10 years? No idea. But this is where I'd LIKE it to go.

1. No more Flash

Flash was great when it was the only thing out there. Now there's not a whole lot you can't do with Javascript thanks to packages like JQuery, there's no need to make your menu a flash movie. Flash will revert back to what it was originally intended for - cartoon animation.

2. CSS3

Designers and developers have been patiently waiting for CSS3 to come out for years. With support of rounded corner block elements, gradating color, multiple background images, drop shadows, RGBA color, generated content, and custom web fonts, the internet is going to get a MAJOR face lift.

3. The Grid

The World Wide Web will go by the wayside and the World Wide Grid will arise. All computers connected to the Grid will essentially share their computing power to accomplish large tasks and massive data transfers. This is a huge undertaking to understand. Read more about it here: wired.com

4. Cloud Computing

With the Grid comes cloud computing. Cloud Computing actually started late in the 00's with services like Google Docs. I'm actually not a huge fan because I don't want to rely on others to get my own work done. Remember when GMail went down in '09? Be prepared for cloud computing to become even more prevalent. The next step in Cloud Computing is hard drive-free computers. You'll turn you computer on and it will connect with your own shared server where you'll access your Operating System, Office programs, and games.

5. Anywhere wireless

Some cities around the country have began initiating this already; city-run internet hotspots. This idea will take effect on a national level. Your laptop or desktop will connect to a public WiFi connection that you'll pay for just like your cellphone bill. It won't use the current "anywhere internet" technologies that are most commonly used today such as cellphone tower internet, but will be actual wireless connections similar to what you have at your home or office.

6. Browser Standards

As a pseudo-developer (designer who knows HTML and CSS) one of the biggest frustrations in this industry is the issue of cross-compatibility between browsers. The 5 biggest browsers are Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, FireFox, Safari, and Chrome (thanks to a huge internet-wide push by Google). Every one of those browsers potentially displays websites differently than the other - Internet Explorer 7 being the biggest culprit (Microsoft has made great strides in fixing the IE7 issues in IE8, however). In the next 10 years the browsers will follow the same standards set by the W3C and all will read HTML and CSS the same way. (Ok, this probably isn't going to happen, but it would sure be nice.)

So, there you have it. Through my clairvoyance I have predicted the next 10 years of the Internet. Why only 6? Because I have other work and this post has taken an hour and a half. Have a great and prosperous new year!