A frequent conversation what we have at my home, since my whole family embraces technology in some way or another, is the future of technology. My basic answer is interconnected experiences. I know that sounds really broad, but it really is the future of technology.
A common misconception is that the web is the future. Those people aren't really that innovative. Those people don't really understand that a desktop application can pull information from the web. Think about it. What does a web browser do? It pulls down info from multiple servers. The web will be an understood thing in the future. Interconnected experiences will allow the web to be anything, anywhere, and it will run on everything. The web is a tool and more of a back-end to the future. Think of the web as an Excel spreadsheet. It only holds data. It doesn't really process data. The future is something that takes that spreadsheet and makes it into something wonderful. The purpose of the web will simply become something that is a thing of the past.
There is much proof to this in the web. Things like AJAX (making the page change without a refresh of the page) is the perfect example. We can start to see the bridge of desktop applications (such as the browser, Word, Excel, etc.) and web applications. What does this mean? This means that the web was just a stepping stone. Will you use a browser in the future? Probably not. The web will be something you will not see in the future. And most likely, we will get rid of the ISPs in the world.
Another BIG misconception, especially in the technology world, is that computers will run off-site. This means that your hard drive, memory etc. will be in some warehouse somewhere. I like the idea, but it really doesn't seem practical. It sounds like something a PC Magazine writer would make up just to get something printed (no offence, PC Mag... I love your work!). It does, however, prove that interconnected experiences will be the theme for the future of technology. It shows that the web will be a back-end to something more wonderful. It just doesn't seem all the appealing to me. I wouldn't invest in that sort of technology.
Whatever the future is, it will serve the user. The social network movement has been proof that normal people use computers too, not just geeks and nerds. People need to think outside the Internet box. We need to start thinking broader.
But for now, the web is a large pool of information that billions of people access daily. That means that a site needs to be of superb quality and must act like a desktop application. Pretty soon, desktop applications will merge with the web and we will see something way different. I just hope that EagleEnvision.NeT will be able to lead the way, as always.