The Web - Past, Present, Future

Reading Kazmierski's web history article and the Wired article regarding the future of the Internet one after the other was for me as a reader rather all-encompassing and thought provoking.

As I read Kazmierski I thought to myself 'this is all fine and dandy...but I know much of this'. Coming from a Computer Science background, articles with regard to client server interaction, ARPAnet, and the like are just another history lesson. Bush's Memex machine was a fresh part of the history that I hadn't seen yet appear in my CS articles, and I did appreciate the references to existing world features that inspired web and computer tools (cut, paste, hyperlink, etc.). Many CS articles are pure facts and a bit of background, but having the cultural perspectives for some of the inspirations does spice up the history lesson.

What really put these readings into perspective for me though, was opening the Wired article once I was done. Within the first page I was reasserting myself on my "web history". That history is still being written. The web and it's place; the Internet and it's uses...these things are still drastically changing. As someone who actually still prefers a browser to apps, I had never stopped to think about how much their place has taken over the web browser.

It made sense though : we come to prefer certain sites for our information; apps were the next logical solution. Why force someone to visit your site within a browser when they can simply open an application devoted to your specialty? And of course, from the capital standpoint, being able to market your features exclusively once you've obtained your following definitely gives appeal to the world of apps for marketing and business relations.

The web browser solved our issue of the time spent finding information or resources. Apps are fixing the web browser's issues of consolidating like information and resources into ways that users prefer (let's face it, a Google search doesn't always give you what you had in mind...but an app advertising such a service probably will). Reading these articles together opened my eyes further to how the computer world and Internet are still shifting and evolving, and I hope that little wake-up call helps me in my field to see the ways we can continue to shape technology for the better for users.