Future of the Internet

Of course, there are different scenarios I can imagine for the appearance of Internet sites in the future, I will focus this overview on a fancy scenario in which the Internet, TV and entertainment media being merged for usage at home.

Only one single device will be necessary. It will look quite similar to the nowadays already available flat-screen TVs. The screen will react to voice and have a voice-detection that can understand a comprehensive set of commands. With these commands, the user can enter the start program and guide through the menu. Besides of course having digital TV that allows us to watch whatever movie, documentary or news at all times, the user can also directly access the web through this device. No time-consuming dialing in is necessary.

The web will be used either over the voice detection or via typing. If the user already knows the site of interest he can directly assess it over saved favorites and an intelligent agent that remembers sites the user already accessed. If he searches for new information he can use intelligent algorithms based on the Google principle. Differently from today, the search is more sophisticated and can already make a first screening to increase the relevance of the content for the search. Information overflow without filtering is thereby avoided.

The web pages themselves are mostly divided into two parts – an informative one and an experiencing one. The informative part is guided by written text and voice which can be kept or switched off. Similar to today, information can be assessed by clicking on the relevant links on the page that is structured like a tree with hierarchical links. This helps user to quickly find answers to question they already had before entering the web.

Besides this written communication also a verbal interactive transaction is possible. Requests for information like we find e.g. on a museum page can be asked verbally and will be answered verbally. Everyone can therefore set-up his own personal agent who guides him through the web. The figure and voice can be tailored by the user.

The experiencing part of the page allows the user to explore the site. E.g. on commercial web sites, the user will be able to emotionally understand the products. He will be able to enter an interactive story in which e.g. products are explained and several opportunities for product usage are shown etc. The user choses from a set of options where he wants to go on the web and which information he wants to spend time on. He will be able to have contact with a virtual assistant from the company whose web site he is visiting and he even can contact a person of the company directly and personally over the web. This complements the physical visit of shops and offers the customers a much better information gathering for making their purchasing choice.

To sum up, subjective experience on the web will add to the already existing information gathering on the web and shape consumer’s behavior and the service relation.