Net’s Next Phase Will Weave Through Your Life

4 Pages 877 Words

Microeconomics

I chose my article from the March 2nd edition of the USA Today. It is entitled “Net’s Next Phase Will Weave Through Your Life.” This article discusses the changes in the near future of the Internet. Since its invention less than a decade ago, the Internet has become part of our everyday life. Businesses and consumers alike have used it for different several reasons to accomplish many different tasks.
But some believe that the growth in the usefulness of the Internet is coming to a halt. Many people consider the Internet a bit worn-out. Investors have seemed to abandon it. Analysts worry that nothing is coming to it. To many users, what was radical just years ago may be becoming monotonous.
But the computer industry is looking to change all that. On the horizon, there’s a new wave of the Internet beginning to break. For most users, the Internet experience will change dramatically over the next year or two. The hope for these changes is that the developments will reunite the industry.
Up to this point, the Net has been almost entirely about viewing content or buying products over the Web through a browser and a personal computer. In the next wave, the browser will no longer be a solo act. It will be part of a much larger system that combines hardware and software together to produce much more than was ever before possible. Craig Mundie, the executive vice president of Microsoft, quotes: “Browsing isn’t bad, and it won’t go away. But the browser will become part of a larger context.”
The Internet will be less about going to big sites like Yahoo and Amazon.com and more about using specialized pieces of software that connect to the Net. Current examples of these types of software include Real Player, Napster, and the Miller Lite Beer Pager. Once one of these programs is loaded onto your PC, they work independently of the browser to do their task very well.
Web sites themselves will als...