Already a vast population of the world live, breathe and dream through web and thanks to the web we are already living in an over communicated world that outgrown our real communication in multiple ways. With internet and computing devices penetrating deeper and encompassing more areas of our live, to consider the most dominating present day web trends is quite a task since the it requires so wide array of things to consider and in spite of all runs the risk of falling short of perfection. There are really great array of changes to consider, like the so called social networking trends are extremely becoming vertical or niche specific, the use of internet is increasingly becoming device specific, the value addition in user's experience once again being the top priority of search engine ranks, Big Data is going to change web and information usability in a revolutionary way, internet marketing trends being more dependent on applications, more possibilities of web being available offline through multitude of applications covering every area of our living hood, application based education replacing the so called e-learning modules, more web integration of location specific data, more availability of real time video streaming and a lot many more. Let us have a look at our picks on top 10 web trends of present time.
- Niche social network
- Big Data
- Web presentation being more device specific
- Applications being top web marketing platform
- Offline applications replacing web need in many areas
- Applications replacing so called e-learning modules
- More integration of real time location specific data
- Storage continuing to depend more on cloud
- More reliance on interactive video streaming
- More powerful web analytics
Those heavy weight names with billions of users from all social background, creed, choice and vocation are already too common to arouse any fresh interest in us. It is more common to have a Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin profile than to learn making coffee. This is the precise reason why the number of Facebook fatigued people or similar exhausted group of user from other social networks are increasing steadily and at the same time niche social networks are rising in popularity. Niche social networks unlike their big brothers cater to people of a niche area of interest or specialty. A travel enthusiast can think of a social networking site of people of similar interest, similarly for language exchange there can be some sites, for fashion there can be some, for different professional interests there can be different social sharing sites. Niche social network is the future of social networking as being seen as budding now.
Among the present day web trends Big Data holds the greatest potential to change the way we use, interact and play with web. As the reserve of data through tons of information sharing on the web is continuing to grow rapidly very soon this huge and continually growing body of data is called as Big Data which is going to put into next generation use of precise analysis of business trends to user psychology to social trends to security threats to almost every potential opportunity area and threats. Big Data analysis is already in use and in the time to come radically will change the business analysis and all our interactions and endeavors.
Just within the last two years web and computing has seen the greatest shift in its entire history of development, that is nothing but change of choice in computing device - from so called desktops and laptops to smarter, thinner, leaner smart phones and an array of fusion devices called tablets and fablets. The all too familiar websites no longer could remain the same. They had to in corporate massive design and presentation changes so that they fit those small and elegant screens of handheld devices. The sales figure of traditional computing devices steadily declining and enterprises increasing shedding off their reluctance in permitting employees to use handheld devices the mobiles and handheld devices will determine the future look and feel of web.
While smart phones and an array of handheld devices are setting the present day web trends in multitude of ways, internet marketing is also experiencing a great shift. Presently effective e-marketing is no more those flashy adds on the web pages but they tend to be more interactive, fluid and responsive than ever before thanks to the trend setting era of applications. As a banker it is smart enough to come up with a banking application, for a publishing house it is far more effective to come with a free and professional version of reading application to sell lure consumers to buy e-version of books in successive time, for a hotelier or travel agent it is the norm of the day to offer a hotel or travel booking application that would give them ease of connecting to clients with all necessary attributes and thus applications in the time to come are supposed to change the business interactions and marketing altogether.
To talk of the top 10 web trends of present time we must come across this new reality of being able to use many erstwhile web specific features without being online or connected to the web. Yes, an array of web based applications are today available even while we are offline and for an update all we need to do is to connect the device online for a few minutes and then again enjoy the updated information without internet connectivity. From mail, e-books to social media update to medical application to newspaper, all now can be accessed offline. Even those are still not coping up with this new reality of using the online and offline mode to get connected to the user all the time, expectedly are bound to follow the trend.
Those decade old e-learning modules that used to have specific time for rendering the online learning modules from a distance are simply going to be outdated and replaced by the cloud based learning and education applications of various sorts. Today from learning a foreign language to take a practical lesson in radiology all are just simple through custom designed applications on your handheld devices itself. Moreover often these applications offer real time media sharing with other professionals or learners letting you dig more on your queries on the respective topic. With high definition video streaming, superb zoom-enabled image output often these applications become smarter choices than those long drawn practical classes. Moreover, you can come back to the learning application as many times as you wish just with a few finger tapings on the screen unlike those e-learning modules that used to require hourly sitting.
If just 10 years ago from now it was our pride to become global while at the same time remaining extrovertly local then now the present day web trends made a big shift - it is no more that gross 'local' which is important as a phenomenon, it must be more particular and so the term evolved as 'hyper real'. Being specific to a culture, ethnicity or region and thus identification of a culturally local is no longer important, but being more individualistic with particularity of my choice, my location is important. This individualist trend of 'local' is increasingly influencing web trends and so real time location specific data of an individual is going to replace that region centric gross information.
Cloud is already established as the big promise to the computing storage of future and in the time to come data storage for the websites no longer can be maintained on location specific servers as the volume of internet use is going to break all bounds through the gigantic proliferation of internet savvy handheld devices. Moreover, as the web is going to be more device-specific and location dependence would continue to shrink across personal use and business use of devices and services accessing data from anywhere, anytime and from any device is going to determine the computing experience, cloud storage is naturally would be the irreplaceable choice.
Video conferencing costing huge on the individuals or enterprises or long distance calls or costly international calls making a person avoid these means only to rely on the interactive message services is a phenomenon that made our effective communication need suffer for a long time. Though Skype or GTalk can already be called as enlivening the trend, proliferation of such media streaming, interactive video streaming on diverse range of communication platforms and real time video conferencing using the web is going to break the last few speed breakers that were holding us from initiating communication in our own preferred way.
The success of your web venture is going to be more powered by web analytics tools in the time to come. As the user choices and corresponding web behavior is continuing to be more delicate, diverse and multifarious with the proliferation of internet access through burgeoning range of handheld devices and easy availability of applications on every range of user interest the analytical need to locate the business potential will continue to grow in importance and there would be more analytical tools in the time to come to analyze the web user behavior and traffic to business conversion.
Honorable Mention: User experience dominating the search engine ranks
We just cannot conclude our discussion on top 10 web trends of present time without referring to this too prominent focus of search engines on the end user experience. As Google and most of the search engines are continuing on their aggressive and arrogant drive to elevate crucial web standard for addressing the web user difficulties, it is now almost an imperative that in the time to come all backdoor tactics to go up the search engine ranks will face utter washout from the search ranks. Not only that, even those SEO and web design practices that were non-willingly faulty to cause detrimental experience for the user will also invite punishment from the search engines. The latest clamor about the Google Penguin update going deeper is a sure proof of that.