SpectatorBytes

There are two major forces poised to significantly simplify the way we interact with the Web over the next few years. In the process, the drastic simplification will anoint the Web as King of All Media (sorry, Howard).  The first one is mobile applications and the second one is the social graph.  A“simpler, easier-to-use” Web means more people will use the Web more than they do today.

Over the past few years, the growth of information on the Web have lead to the creation of “packaging” experiences which make information consumption much more efficient for consumers. The proliferation and popularity of content aggregators such as the Huffington Post, Digg and Twitter readers such as Tweetdeck and Sessmic are evidence of this phenomenon. Niche bloggers also play the role of packagers for their audiences, serving them with the most relevant information on a topic from across the Web. System-driven efforts such as topic pages by companies like Kosmix and Loud3r or human-driven like Mahalo are another example of this desire to create efficient ways to package information for consumers. These initiatives have been built around the currently predominant paradigm which is built around URLs, websites and search engines.

There are, however, a couple of new paradigms that will seek to rival the existing construct of the Web. First, we are seeing the rise of an entire new consumption paradigm via smartphone (and soon tablet) applications. The “smart” mobile Web has allowed content owners to offer digital experiences which are much more efficient, targeted, easy to use and personalized than those we find on the PC Web today. Most of these applications are optimized to serve “specific” user behaviors rather than to serve multiple use cases, which most Web sites tend to do.

This mobile framework has some additional benefits for users. It is a cleaner, spam-less environment (for now). It allows for greater control by providing quicker access to the information/content with which I want to interact. Although the discovery of new applications needs to be more efficient, applications are proving very effective mechanisms to help users discover relevant information via “relevant and in-context” notifications.

Personally, I have already shifted my behavior to favor apps over the PC Web when looking for a movie to watch on the weekend, keeping up with my friends’ status, skimming headlines from my favorite blogs, checking the weather and making restaurant reservations.

Although at an earlier stage than the app store paradigm, the new “social graph” paradigm for content consumption advanced by social networks is also emerging as an alternative for users. This new consumption framework uses the social graph to re-arrange content and information available on the Web, and promote the delivery of relevant and “passively” personalized content experiences. In this paradigm, we “follow” our interests rather than “search” things that we are interested in.  We discover new information via “recommendations” rather than “browsing”. We access the information via “streams” rather than traditional aggregators, RSS readers or search results. We move to a push environment (delivered) rather than a pull environment (requested).  Ultimately, in this framework, we expect to be able to access / receive information in real-time given our indication of interest. Twitter and its ecosystems of applications have led the way in seedign this paradigm.

These new content consumption paradigms will have significant implications. Here are some of the ones that I envision:

- Users may gravitate more towards branded experiences tailored to their needs / interests; Brands will regain their equity
- Users may search less since they already receive what they need to know;
- Companies will need to develop new marketing and distribution capabilities tailored to this new envirnoment (something the social game companies know well);
- Real-time experiences will become the standard; content producers will need to speed up and increase the volume of content production.

Even though these changes will challenge us as participants it will also create significant opportunities if we quickly move to optimize our businesses around these new trends. These are exciting developments for the Web as it is making it an even easier medium to discover, consume and share information / content for all users.

A simpler Web is one that as a consumer I will certainly welcome.