Web Design is going to  change. You’ve heard the rumors.  I’ve heard them and I’m feeling suspended between fear and hope.  Is it our nature to fear change?  The unknown is always a corridor with a million doors that lead to new corridors and doors.

I didn’t really feel the change between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 because, truth to be told, I wasn’t that crazed about technology.  The Y2K left me waiting for the Collapse of Western Civilization.  Fortunately, nothing happened.  Yet we wait for change apprehensively.  I mean, really… do we want to see a Taxi Driver sequel (or a “prequel”, if you’re more hip than the rest of us)?

I’ve watched way too many horror flicks and Scorsese movies lately and I’m a bit edgy.  The lack of sleep turns me into a harbinger of doom.  However, could it be that Web 3.0…

… is the end of the Internet as we know it?

2005 was kind of a bittersweet year. Had fun, but my Father passed away that same year.  Met a great woman, she left to France a few months later.  Some people feel that four years is a LOT of time (usually, they’re younger).  Some people thing that four years is… not a lot of time.

Whatever it was, time passed us by. 2009’s soon to end, a new decade approaches.  Maybe we’re ready for a change.  Web 3.0 feels like a nice breeze.  But these gentle breezes announce hurricanes.

Web 3.0: Is it THAT Scary?

Web 3.0 (also known as the Semantic Web) is a collective integration of technology and media that has the integration and linking of all information for the sake of navigability and speed.

Doesn’t sound that different from the Web we have now.  The main difference relies on how it detaches information from its former peer-to-peer channels and gives it some independance and freedom of movement, so to speak.

What Are We Supposed to Expect?

Hyperlinks are key here.  An old invention that serves a new purpose in these new lands. The way information will be entwined will allow users to follow a track towards the query and the answer, not unlike dictionaries can guide us though definitions and every word has a major meaning (hypertext, if you will) related to it.

In other words:  more than the apocalypse and rebirth of these protocols, Web 3.0 offers a de-centralization from P2P information sharing and browsing and de-centralizes it making it more available and easier to find.

Practically, we humans will be in charge of providing contents and media for the Web, but things will be a bit more abstract in the future than they already are.

Aftermath

Come to think about it, future is not that bleak. It’s our chance to focus on content quality instead of content distribution.  It can be both a 180° or a 360° turn.  Some technologies are applying these principles to their sites now and, while we have nothing but hopes and best wishes, it feels like a logical, more organic way to approach info.

I guess web designers will  have to wait in their shelters for the next cataclysm for a bit longer.  It’s not happening right now.