Keeping Abreast of Internet Trends is Important!

What is known as the World Wide Web, or the Internet cannot be defined any longer in the traditional sense, as in the definition linked to above. It is much more than merely the sum of its’ parts and certainly cannot be thought of as purely “mechanical” in nature. To describe it thus is to rob the internet of its’ personality and it truely has developed a personality since its’ inception.

So, if the internet is not simply a network of computers, linked together for the purpose of sharing information, what is it?

The internet is a continually evolving organism with the abililty to grow, adapt, “learn”, and contribute. It has developed a life of its’ own in that it takes on the “aura” of all those who interact with and through it. The accumulative total input of the people utilizing the internet gives it a “heart and soul”, its’ own unique and peculiar identity. The very capacity of the internet to morph the personalities and passions of those who interact with it and through it, gives it something that could not have been imagined 15 or 20 years ago, a “life” of its’ own.

A (Very) Brief History of the Internet

The early years of the internet are somewhat obscured in detail. It’s hard to determine exactly who did what and when because of the fluidity and openess of the entire structure. However, the basics are well known. In short, while the concept of the internet was the idea of a few brainiacs (Licklider, Roberts, Kleinrock, etc…) the development of the internet was initiated, and largely funded, at the behest of the United States government through the Defense Advanced Research Projects (DARPA). Big idea, big money, big brains and ARPAnet was born. The original concept, at least in the governments eyes, was to provide a system for the freeflow of information even in the event of an enemy attack, an attack which could undermine a traditional communications network. I don’t believe it was the governments intention to provide for a “freeflow” of information in the sense of giving open access to the system as we have today. Intentional or not, their funding of this brilliant idea resulted in just such an outcome, and I’m thankful they have let it remain a “frontier” for so long.

Okay so you’re beginning to yawn, if you’d like a slightly more fleshed out version, go to Walt Howes’ brief history and you’ll get the picture, meantime, let me get to the point. We can thank the geeks that first thought of the internet, the U.S. government for funding the early research, the other geeks who were able to perfect GUI (can you imagine the internet really taking off with text alone?) and the freedom we have as U.S. citizens to pretty much use the internet for whatever we want. Not a little credit goes to IBM also, for their willingness (or lack of foresight) to relinquish their rights and allow cloning of the early PC on the open market. See this article for more info on that.

It was the freedom and openess of the early internet development, that gave the internet its’ “organism” status. As time went on, people from all walks of life began to use the internet, first as an e-mail platform or for simple web-browsing. Commercial applications began to emerge, free market forces directed the exchange of ideas and development of applications. As information gathering technologies increased, the supply and demand aspect steered the direction of growth. The entire mechanism began to grow along the lines of the dominant personalities of those who developed and used it. In reflecting the people who were creating it, it began to take on a life of its’ own, with personality and soul, metamorphosing from machine to “organism”. Perhaps if the academia and government were the only entities priviledged to use the internet, it would still be a very dull, text interfaced, boring database of information. But they weren’t, and it isn’t and it now lives and breathes as part of our social fabric. It is us, or better phrased perhaps would be this.

The internet, in a very liberal sense, is the transcendent Ka of the masses. It is a reflection of the mind and soul of all who have entered its’ portals. Even in simply browsing the web, you have, by way of information gathered from your browsing and the adjustments made as a result of that information, contributed to its’ personality. The internet, then, mirrors the collective personality of those who interact with it. Just as the individual people who have shaped the internet, go through changes in thier desires, needs, thinking and passions, the internet as an aggregate of those individuals, shows the same propensity for change and growth. It is an expression of the changes of society as a whole. These reflected societal developments are the “Internet Trends” of which I speak. Trends on the internet are the voice of the Ka of the people and society.

So, How Do I Use The Internet Trends To My Advantage?

For anyone who desires to utilize the internet to achieve any goal at all, understanding the internets direction and trends is crucial. Although the internet, as we know it today, is much less than two decades old, it has evolved so quickly and radically, it’s hard to remember what it was like in the early days. There are plenty of savvy webgurus who were still soiling their pampers when I got my first, used HP Netserver in 1992, but they have been raised on the technology and use it as part of their daily routine, capitalizing on its’ functionality. I on the other hand thought the net was largely for geeks and nerds and did not see the potential clearly. I was unable, or unwilling, to see the trends and utilize them to my personal, and financial, benefit. Keeping an open mind and turning a trend to your advantage will open the door for all sorts of remuneration.

So what are the latest trends, and where are they heading?

To understand the direction and trends of the web, you need to understand society as a whole and the direction we are taking as the collective Ka. At this point in the history of the internet, personal blogging is still king. Blogspot, Blogger, and WordPress, are three venues that show the popularity of personal blogging. Monetizing the blogs has become the norm as well and countless people are blogging about…. blogging, it’s kind of a redundancy that has peaked. So, while it is still tops in all it’s forms (even Facebook is a form of blogging), it’s beginning to be supplanted by more hip and trendy platforms for personal expression and publishing. Twitter is probably the latest trend in blogging (also known as “micro blogging”) and you will see a huge growth in this over the year ahead as more and more people learn how to utilize it to their advantage.

One Big Trend Is Twitter

The biggest trend currently is, arguably, Twitter, and there are many, many people trying to figure out how to make it a tool to use for personal and financial gain. The applicatioin Twitscoop, seems to be one of those applications with real value. It is simply put a “buzz meter” which shows the words with the highest “buzz count” floating around the internet. You can also see the trend of any particular buzzword by simply clicking on that word in the Tweet Cloud. You get up to a 3 day overview of that words “buzz strength” which can forecast a trend. My opinion is that the historical graphing of the words “buzz strength” needs to extend for 10 to 15 days to be really useful, but even so, the strengthening of a buzz word, gives some insight as to what is being talked about around the world. Good fodder for someone wanting to write time sensitive, personal articles on the latest hot topic.

I see Twitscoop as being an effective tool in the near future for capitalizing on the popularity of Twitter. As time goes on, I’ll be investigating other applications that tie into the Twitter explosion to see how they can be used as well. 

I’m not a prophet, but I think the next big thing is MocoSpace, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.