Crap, the Future

I'm in the web business so I pretend to understand Google Wave, Twitter and the whole web two point Oh! concept. I'm surrounded with people who are barely getting the hang of email and the future of the internet is a little too much to cope for them. It seems understanding "the point" of Twitter is quite a challenge. Hell, even I didn't see the reason to hop onto that train until recently.

So, what's Twitter then?

Twitter is like Facebook's status updates with pretty much nothing else. Hearing that turns a lot of people off it right there and then, but keeping it limited like that (even the character limit) has good uses. Here at RalphvandenBerg.com for example, I sometimes go for a couple of days or even weeks in between a post, because I can't think of anything "post-worthy". With twitter it's a lot easier because you're only doing a one or two-liner. Now you can easily do 5 to 10 posts per day without overwhelming anybody or putting too much time into writing on your part.

What I've just described above is using Twitter as a micro-blogging service. Another use which I'll advocate often is using it as an updating tool for your own website. Twitter is so flexible you can easily import feeds onto web-pages as news updates or specials or whatever you like. Makes your website a little more 2.0!

Two point "oh!"

Web 2.0 is one of the vaguest things in web designer circles. It was and still might be the future of the way you interact with web pages, as opposed to simply witnessing web pages. In my opinion, web 2.0 is best summarized into a little loading GIF that you see around. Try posting a comment on this article- incredibly 2.0 dude!

No actually it's much more than that. Basically it revolves around the web or internet or pages and sites being evolved and created by everybody, not only web designers. I'm going to stop trying to explain it- the more I try, the less convincing I sound.

Then Google's Wave?

This morning I read (in Twitter) that a guy downloaded Google Wave and didn't really think it was that special and switched back to Firefox. He didn't try Google Wave, he tried Google Chrome: Google's web browser. Google's doing a lot of stuff (Chrome, Chrome OS, Wave, Earth, Maps, Android, Search etc.) and if you're getting confused you're normal.

The Wave is in preview mode and currently it's invitation only. There's nothing to download, it's all web based. If I had to sum it up in one sentence, I'd call it a OneNote page that's online that you and your friends can edit live like in chat or something. Google's trying to revolutionize email and changing the concept to a centralized message that's edited by all "recipients" instead of copies of the email being sent to everyone and basically going drastically out of sync. Like email and chat, it's absolutely boring if you're the only one using it- which will stay that way for a long time. Email is comfortable and it works because everyone is using it. If you wanted to get Google Wave to work, everybody would need to make the switch.

It's interesting to see what the future holds, and you'll never know which innovations kick off and which ones are lost in the webs of sites. How do you cope with new technologies? Hate 'em or love 'em? Please comment below.