Friday Poll: What will the Web be like in 25 more years?
Crave's Eric Mack looked back at 25 years of the Web. Now it's time for all of us to look forward and share our predictions for the future.
The Web turned 25 this week and the birthday celebrations have been full of memories and musings. Crave's Eric Mack put together a four-part series tracing his life through the Web, from his days as a teenage dial-up addict, through the dot-com boom and bust, to how the Web looks today.
It's been a wild ride so far, but where will the roller coaster take us next? There's been plenty of speculation on the future of the Web. Even though "Minority Report" came out back in 2002, it's still mentioned constantly as a model for immersive interactions with computers. Perhaps we'll all be flailing our hands about in the air as we interface with a Web that has pretty much the whole world under surveillance.
There is already plenty of talk about the "Internet of Things," so it's not hard to imagine the Web growing into a giant network of stuff, connecting everything from dog collars to toasters to sensor-laden bracelets worn on our wrists.
Perhaps the Web will take a darker turn, one where some governments attempt to exercise more control over what citizens can access, fracturing the borderless ideal of the Internet.
Chances are, the Web in 25 years could be a mix of all these things, along with developments we haven't even imagined yet. If you had told a Web user back in the early '90s that we would all be storing our data in the cloud and people would be walking around with the Internet on their glasses, you might be accused of writing a sci-fi story.
Take what you know about the history of the Web and turn your imagination loose. What will the Web look like 25 years from now? Vote in our poll, and share your vision in the comments.