History is Now with Real-time Communication
What really matters is the increased accessibility of people online, not just information online. – Aardvark
The number of people that is online can only move in one direction, _up_. The way people will use internet will differ every year.
Example 1: newsmap.jp – News, Now!
With newsmap you can see the news that are big at the moment. Bigger news means larger space on the newsmap. Great example of the reality web. Big news is not decided by any specific news-source, it’s decided by a big number of sources.
Example 2: TwitScoop
A snapshot of Twitter, now! (Image to the right) Come back in 5 minutes and you will see a different set of scoops. I would request a twitscoop that takes snapshots for the latest minute/hour/day/week/month. If you could base your scoop on location/interests/age/subject it would be even more amazing. That will probably be available tomorrow. Otherwise I have to make it myself!
Example 4: Aardvark
Ask anything and get the answer within a couple of minutes. Aardvark is a real-time information community where you can ask anything for free. They call it social-search and it is exactly where I want the internet to become. When you register you insert your interests and some topics that you know about. Aardvark will tag a question and suggest it to a person that fits. You can get questions by email/IM or directly on your iPhone.
I am aardvarking a lot and since they also have an iPhone app i use it when I’m on the run. The other day I got a question when I was on the trainstation. It was about online Address-books. I had the answer and within minutes the man from Florida got his answer. Luckily he knew a couple of swedish words and was very happy to get in touch with a swede since his grandmother was from northen sweden. He made my evening and hopefully I made his. For free and I is surely worth the time spent.
Besides all those examples, communities are a big part of reality web.
The Twitter movement combined with facebook have in one way been more revolutionary than the IM revolution (IM = Instant messaging like MSN, ICQ and Skype) since it is more about information sharing, realtime! IM is more a free alternative to something we already had in SMS and Phone Calls, with a big twist of course. Services like last.fm that is all about music is one example of communities more focused on some special interests. You can get recommended new music, discuss music with other people and also check what your friends are listening to right now. Why don’t we have that kind of communities for movies/books/location and other interests. Tomorrow maybe?
Internet have turned from an information source into an information stream powered by the users. The large amount of users means that each and everyone only has to contribute with their presence/interests and thoughts.
Where in the stream are you today? Where in the stream are you in 2 years?
The new mobile trend is Facebook/Twitter etc. integrated in the Phone. With a phone with Facebook included you can easily check the facebook status before you call someone. The pictures of your phone contacts will be in sync with the latest ones on Facebook and you never need to worry about out-dated phone-numbers since they will be upgraded when people change them on the net.
The future is now and now is history in 5 minutes. Internet is going faster and faster and the potential is what we want it to be.
This was my version. Want to know more? Check New York Times article: Hey, Just a Minute (or Why Google Isn’t Twitter)
