Long Live the Internet

Did someone just say, “The Web is Dead”? Holy crap. When did that happen?

I am inspired by the September issue of Wired Magazine’s cover story: “The Web is dead.” It’s such a bold statement. How could I not possibly be drawn in to investigate?

September 2010 issue

As with anything, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Of course, the web isn’t dead. It’s just that we’ve collectively had a lot of experience with it — you know, browsers taking us across the world to individuals’ pages, company pages, blogs, websites, and full-throttle animated microsites. It seems crazy but an entire generation of people have now grown up with this Web. With the big world wide web officially beginning in 1992, to my young nephews and niece, getting to a website and getting down to business is just no big thing.

I think a lot about how my dad, now in his late 60s, approaches unknown websites and web experiences versus how my youngest nephew does. And I am reminded of a quote by Arthur C. Clarke:

Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic.

“Profiles of The Future,” 1961 (Clarke’s third law)
English physicist & science fiction author  (1917-2008)

My dad sees magic. My nephew sees routine.

So, what is Wired talking about when they say the web is dead? It’s nothing more than the inevitable march of progress. People want more. And they want it faster.

When the web was forming, battles were fought over its progress. But, in the end, we (thank heavens) ended up with an open web: one built on open standards, non-proprietary technology, a web for the people, by the people, of the people. Amen.

But, that slow-progressing openness to web standards has left us with web pages which look different on different browsers. Lines of codes which work great in this browser fail miserably in others. Why? Well, it’s an ever-evolving open standard, free to interpretation by the makers of all the world’s different browsers.

As Interactive Director I feel compelled to push HTML5, the latest evolution of the web’s programming language. But, considering that full implementation is not due until 2012, this kind of slow progression is hard to compel paying clients to implement. Is HTML5 ready yet?

Then Apple kicked it up a notch, and a new creature was born: the app. And it offers us, the consumers, a way to get everything we want directly, efficiently, and without “browsing” through all the clutter and noise.

And it uses the same Internet tubes that the web uses — it’s just … proprietary, not an open standard.

Do consumers care? Every indication is that they don’t. Even my nephew is willing to pay 99 cents for a song through iTunes (proprietary) versus spending his valuable teenage time sifting through the web to find that same song free (open web).

As advertisers, we need to explore these new vehicles that ride on our Internet tubes: there’s apps and APIs, FTP and company VPNs, email and instant messaging, voice and Skype, games, video. Bloomberg News is even reporting that Apple may begin “renting” TV shows for 99 cents. That’s all running on those same Inter-Tubes.

The digital world no longer solely exists with Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox or the plethora of other browser contenders. I want my damn in-ground pool to tell me when the chlorine level is low and how to fix it. That’s not going to happen within HTML. But it will happen across the Internet with proprietary access. I love reading the WSJ on an iPad for the proprietary animation and design that an app affords, versus what a web version of the Wall Street Journal could give me.

Possibilities are out there. Technology gives us, the advertisers, a chance to shape how this new generation of consumers bite at our tidbits. We have only to dream them in reality. (I swear I’m not a hippie.)

Finally … and I’ve spoken too long anyway, here’s my final thought, another quote from Clarke:

New ideas pass through three periods:
1) It can’t be done.
2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing.
3) I knew it was a good idea all along!