10 Future Web Trends to watch

Read/Write web is one of my favourite sites too. I am really surprised that they didn’t mention virtualisation a la Amazon’s EC2 and S3 services. These are already changing the way web applications are developed and served.

I also think that another hot future web trend is going to be location based services that know where you are and where your friends and desired items are at any particular moment.

absolutely — those are two very big omissions… especially the “hyper-local” phenomenon which seems to be the new buzzword at the moment…

Hyper-local is more hype than anything else. And it completely misses the fact that folk’s online universes are far, far wider than their parochial neighbourhood.

No coincidence that the fad originates in the USA where insularity has too often been a reaction to globalisation.

Quite right that read/write web omits it.

Hi Guy — I’ll agree there is hype and its somewhat of a buzzword at the moment, but I do think there is something to it, but it would only work for countries or cities that have high internet penetration and relative affluence. For example it would be useful to create local-regional social networks based on your location to discuss restaurant service or crime issues in an area… but it’ll work only if there is high penetration.

…so, as you suggest too, the concept is really based on a high income country scenario — ie enough internet penetration and savvy people in small, local pockets to make it worthwhile…