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Mobile devices, the Internet & what the future has in-store

The foundation of the Internet is based upon marketing & without a successful business model the Internets technological progression will stumble to a halt.

Twenty-five years, seven months, an idea to globally interconnect a set of computers was envisioned. This idea was to offer a new form of communication that had incredible potential. It was all based upon the idea that information could be shared between computers and applications could be universally accessed. Needless to say since then it has been indexed, commercialized and perpetuated. Indeed it has grasped the attention of millions and taking the term, “global media” to an entirely new level. It is the greatest record of mankind ever created with literally millions of new pages being made each and every day, demanding and proclaiming it worthy of our attention.

The Internet has evolved to become an advanced tool where one can be educated, informed, entertained, contacted and even socialized. In fact it can almost be said that you can do anything on the Internet today, pay bills, buy goods, send checks, even view your home close circuit cameras.

The Internet has since evolved from a sole focus on information sharing, where the only important features were text, links and a few pictures to application based sites where users can input their own generated content and used advanced applications that computers ten years ago could not even process. As computers have advanced and Internet connections improved the ability for the Internet to perform greater functions such as video and audio have caused a greater audience than ever before.

But what has been the driving force beneath the Internets evolution? Who, why and what has continued to create new online technologies that can display home videos, new TV shows, movies and social networking? I intend to reason from looking at past events the future course of the Internet. I will not claim that I will be right, merely this will be a thought exercise that will hopefully arrive at a valid and justified conclusion. I also intend to reason that the webs progression is due to a potential of profit and that the future of the internet is dependent upon a successful business model/models and that the current business model/models must evolve with the Internets progression.

The reason why I would choose advertising as such a big player in regards to the future of the Internet is because the industry of the Internet seeks benefit. The main benefit for the Internet to any company, large or small is profit. Companies are willing to pay lots of money in web development as long as it is justified by a good return. If the return is not sufficient for companies to deem it worthy, then they abandon the development. If the Internet was found incabable of returning greater profit than the investment, then it would not advance further in its capabilities for its users. This is the basic logic I will use throughout the rest of this text.

To further my reasoning I would like to take a brief look at the past. Back in the 60’s advertising was not complicated, a few newspapers, a few TV channels, a few billboards, a few radio stations and a few magazines. Of course it was not just a few but relative to today we can safely say, “yes it was just a few”. You could literally guarantee millions of viewers, almost an entire major market segment, would be watching a certain show from the hours of 6pm to 8pm. However today that is just not so and it is driving manufacturers, business owners and advertising agencies nuts! Why? Because today you cannot guarantee anything in regards to advertising! Their are too many various media and vehicles for them to choose from. New technologies including cable, dish, cheaper printing methods and of course the Internet have caused a media explosion and an over saturation of content, the main culprit being the Internet which is the primary cause for such a diverse selection of media.

I am not just talking about web pages, I am talking MP3 players, iPods, iPhones, Podcasts, Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, Hulu.com, CNN.com and I could go on for a very, very long time. Even cell phones now have the option of having media content displayed, especially with the new 3G phones, which can run video as seamlessly as any other TV. The one thing that connects all of these technologies together, the mother earth for the entire existence of such media is the Internet. It is the soil of which all new media has sprouted from and it is this fertile ground that is cause for millions of dollars in further development and advertising.

But let me get something off my chest, the Internet was never meant to be used for advertising, no, as a child it could only display badly designed web pages whilst having an inept and genetic ability of transferring textual information, a limitless amount of textual information. This in itself was enough to fuel a world-wide library in the homes of all computer users. This was enough to get the “geeks” excited, it was an incredible breakthrough but in the mid-nineties companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft began to commercialize the Internet, they found a way to make some big bucks. They saw vast potential as a new form of communication technology appeared called electronic mail or E-mail. By allowing people to have the ability to send mail to their family, friends and colleagues for free they could pervade commercial images through their eye sockets, it was a great first incentive for people to get involved with being online and of course we have all bought into it and will continue to do so. Indeed free wins all. Pop-up ads began to rage amongst the user with messages such as, “Congratulations you are the 1,000,000th visitor” proclaiming a prize was in store. Yes we all initially clicked on them coming to a sudden realization of its complete fraudulent ethic! But still we settled as free was just too good to pass up. We traded commercial bombardment with free service, what a bargain!

Since those early years the business world has often wondered how they could effectively advertise their brands on the Internet receiving the barbaric response of, just spend thousands of dollars and see what happens. Why this response? Because no-one knew how to advertise effectively on the web because there was no telling of who was seeing your advertisement or if you were getting a return on its investment. Of course this had become guesswork for the advertising world and today the amount of websites are exponentially expanding causing even greater reason for dismay.

Today it isn’t just about the males aged 40-60, it has become males, 20-25, single, living in NY, tendency to travel, dark hair, blue eyes, like long walks on the beach etc. The demographic has now expanded to include a psychographic and has become so in-depth that advertisers would literally like to think they know what color underwear you wear and what your breath smells like at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon! Why has it become so drastic, why do they try and invade your thoughts, lifestyle and environment? Why do they follow you around like a dumped ex who just cannot take no for an answer? One simple answer, that is because your a hard bugger to get a hold off!

With literally millions of media vehicles to choose from it has become quite the mission to contact the right people for the right product/service and the Internet has not made things any easier, no not at all. But still the war continues and effective advertising pursued, technology being the answer for the Internets inherent inadequacy for advertising.

Today millions of dollars are being spent in advertising on the web every year due to the fact that one in every four retail dollars are spent shopping online and this figure,relatively, is not estimated to be falling anytime soon. It is this realization that has caused further investment in web development to be made online, from major corporations to the small business owners. In fact it can be said that the Internet has been perpetuated and advanced by its potential of profitability, namely advertising and retail. Why else would Facebook spend over $250,000 in launching an initial website? Why else would companies like Amazon and Ebay employ thousands of people to further its online services? Why else would millions of dollars be spent in search engine optimization just so sites can out-rank each other on a particular Google search? These questions infer that the Internet is driven by a business model that is based upon profitability. Key companies such as Google have been a major driving force in supplying free applications to users by selling ad space on the pages they view and also in faith that the user will eventually become the advertiser. Really, genius and so deserve a mention.

If there was a formula for Google’s philosophy it would be, “simplicity + free powerful applications and services + advertising = Billions of dollars”. No company has become such a part of both the consumer and the advertiser than Google. They offer free services to their users and offer their advertisers their users, who just happen to be 70% of the worlds Internet surfers. The impact of Google has turned the Internets business model upside-down from a pay-per-ad on each page strategy to a pay-per-click strategy, only enabled by Google’s tracking technology.

Google first came in as a simple effective search engine, then it offered free mail that was above and beyond the competitors. Today it is a friend to most people, offering them free web solutions for their personal needs and also business needs. The primary method for their income being advertising and getting the small guys to advertise also. I have seen some web based companies pay around $30,000 a month on pay-per-click advertising on Google. In fact it is not a rare sight. Also small companies are paying around $2000 a month on advertising. There is a lot of companies out there and what Google offers is traceable, reviewable, accurate results. The web technology that they have conjured up has been enough, so far, to lure the business owner to advertise and continue doing so.

This summer I worked at an ad agency in Washington and was interested to see that, in a hard economy, there was a shift from established media such as TV, cable and radio to online spending. The consensus from the majority of clients was online spending was more cost effective and I suppose, lower front-end costs. Google obviously offers something that businesses desire, an ability to know what your Return on Investment is online.

But Google’s current strategy aims advertisements based upon key words that are searched by the consumer. Although this is a great marketing strategy as the consumer is exposed to ads relative to their search, there is a much needed alternative strategy. The reason for an alternative business model is due to the fact that most advertising is aimed to not only fulfill a need, but also to create a need. Some consumers may not know that there is a product that can fulfill a new need, or fulfill an unknown desire.

To expose advertisements to specific demographics that are online has been a goal of the major corporations for a while. For example in March 2007 Yahoo bought DoubleClick and Microsoft in a desparate attempt to keep up with the Jones’ bought AA | Razorfish. Both companies were dealing with a technology called, “Ad Serving” where certain ads are displayed according to the users online behavior. This is made possible by the use of “cookies” which basically store what sites you have been to, enabling the Ad Serving Technology to pull from a server an ad that matched the demographic profile of that user. Quite amazing, but even this technology is not in full swing due to its invasive nature and the ability for users to block these ads by changing their browsers preferences make some skeptical.

The main problem for advertising on the Internet is that the user can always be in control of the content that is displayed. Again another reason for questioning the current business model for the Internet. This has been overcome in some cases with video content by including an ad at the beginning of the movie, however new advertising strategies are in order for the longevity and profitability of the web.

Technological advancements have been made in delivering ads to users however this kind of technology often slows down the users Internet connection. Should we rely on technology to be the answer to force the Internet to become profitable? No, I don’t believe that would ever be the answer. The answer and the future of the Internet must essentially be a simple solution. If we were to use Ockham’s razor we would see the simplest solution as being the best. The Internet so far has been used first and foremost as a means of displaying data. Although this is the inherent beauty of the Internet many people today use it for much more than that and it is linked with something called convergence.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a machine that could place plates on the table, take them off the table when you were finished, wash the plates, dry the plates and put them away afterwards, cook your food, wash your clothes, clean the house and iron your laundry? I am expecting a resounding, “YES!” But technology in the past has become so divergent that we today we have several machines that do all the aforementioned work. I ask why? Could it be possible that there could be one machine that could do them all?

Today the Internet has made our surfing vastly divergent. If you want to view the news you type in CNN.com, then if you want to shop you must type in overstock.com, then if you want to socialize you must type in Facebook.com and if you want to do all three at the same time, you have to have three windows open all at once. Let us now apply this to advertising, we often associate ads separate from the content we desire. For example when watching our favorite CBS show we expect a break and then a cavalier of commercials. It is this subconscious method of advertising that has separated the two forms of communication. But todays world of marketing and advertising calls for a convenient convergence.

Be honest with yourself for one minute, your cell phone, e-mail and PDA organizer. Do these really make your life easier? I have used these for over ten years and for most of the time in retrospect I spend half the time on my phone relentlessly texting for no apparent cause and over half of my time on my PDA wasting my time trying to make it more productive. The truth is they are more of a burden than a blessing, more time has been wasted aquainting myself with the new technologies and the customs it brings than what they were created for! When you walk out of the house now you need your keys, wallet, cell phone, MP3 player and PDA at all times. What happened to just being able to walk out of your cave and take a brisk walk with no cares in the world?

What if there was a device that could do all of this, it could be the key to our door, the card for our purchases, even our car key and planner. It could find information on the Internet and return it, it could tell the hospital our blood type and our insurance number. This is the true power of the Internet, convergence in technology.

Currently there are so many different places to go that can to the same thing, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo answers, forums, chatrooms. All of these can essentially be the same thing, however companies are clamoring to make their service the best. But convergence will rule all. I can guarantee if there was a website out there that could converge a plethora of websites into one online application it would be the most popular. If it could show your friends who were online, the current global, national and local news, your favorite teams scores, your favorite products which are on sale, your favorite links and you get to choose what advertising you want in the corner.

Convergence is evident in todays global market. Transformers was a very succesful film and I bet you can name the company that sponsored the production quite heavily, of course it was General Motors. Advertising has to become seen as almost one with the content in order for it to effectively be emotionally attached to the viewer. What if while you were typing to a friend online and there was an ad box at the right of the screenthat changed the ad that was displayed according to the words that were being typed.

One of the great inventions of this century so far has been the iPhone due to its capability of convergence. The MP3, PDA, cell phone and laptop have all been divergent devices but the iPhone stands to converge that technology together. Apple, instead of creating another must have, that would be another addition to the twenty other things we must have with us at all times. They created something that could replace at least all of the above mentioned on a mobile scale, a phone, an organizer, MP3 player, movie player, Internet browser and of course YouTube application amongst thousands of others, all in one device. Now that would lighten the load don’t you think? And that is exactly what Internet users and consumers will lean toward.

Today Internet marketing has turned toward to what has now become one of the major uses of the Internet, social networks. It amazes me how much people are willing to display about themselves online for their friends and strangers to see! Many people are willing to disclose more information about themselves to a stranger on the Internet than an aquaintance on the street. Social Internet marketing is made easy by these social network users as by the nature of the system they generate their own demographic, making succesful marketing easy. Also as other users generate new content they return time and time again.

The main needs of Internet advertising is finding how to display the ad to the right consumer at the right time, in the right way and receive information on the how the consumers are reacting to the ads. The trick to succesful advertising is to make the receiver not think that it is an ad, for example Castaway was a highly successful film that had a story about a Fed-Ex delivery man stranded on an island. The success of the ad was that is was not seen as pervasive but was displayed at the beginning of the film and at the end where an emotional connection was made when the package was finally delivered. Apple are also very effective in their product placement in movies also. In most teenage flicks these days you can expect to see the Apple logo gleeming from the back of a computer or laptop. It is very subtle can be noticed everytime, this has been seen as a highly effective form of advertising and should be implemented into the Internet. The question is how!

Users are very goal driven when searching the Internet, it is seen more as a resource than a medium, although that is changing moreso as it is evolving. The only time when users are relaxing online is when they are either in a social network or watching video content. It is at these prime times that advertising should be included and what better than for it to show advertising pertinent to the conversations of the user. For example if the user typed in their post, “I need a new pair of running shoes” a Nike ad could be placed on that page. Infact a similar business model to Google could be employed where the highest bidder takes the first place during the conversation. What could be better is if the ad displayed was a comparison of shoes and prices with links to purchase them at the same time.

However in retrospect the users of the Internet do see it as a place to search for information and now also a place to socialize. Therefore the best thing to do in regards to advertising is to be where the people are searching or chatting. The problem is only the big advertisers with the big bucks can be there. So what’s a small business owner to do? The best thing for local business owners is for them to be listed on a local level search for products/services. The only problem with that is you will only be listed with searches and you will have to continue to pay lots of money to Google. The real question here is what is the future of the Internet and how will it effect the Internets business model.

Before I go on, the future of the Internet could be anything. But the trend that has developed since the Internet began is that the most obvious thing has happened. The only problem is that the obvious thing is never obvious until it has already happened. For example online shopping, bank statements and chatting are obvious today but were not always so. Today we may think that the future of the Internet has come to a close becuase it cannot get any better. That is false as the power of the Internet is integration and convergence as discussed before. Therefore anything can be linked up to the Internet and can be used to retrieve data that is desired by the consumer.The golden question is what device could automate this process of retrieving data that would be necessary for the consumer . For example a refirgerator that could scan the items inside and detect when it was running out, finding deals and the cheapest prices for a future purchase. Or what if a device that could scan objects in the stores or in the home and tell you the best prices online and offer similar products with images and consumer reports? What if you could plug in the same device into your car that could tell you where to go and also where the nearest Gas station was. The truth is all of this can be done by products that are already out there but, and this is a big but none of them can do all of that. If one simple device could be used for the express use of researching products online whilst out and about, the whole time uploading your searches and requests online for you to look at at a convenient time. Then being able to purchase them with the same account would allow for a perfect organic use of communication where the advertiser would be able to expose its product/services to the consumer in a non-pervasive, on request method. The result is that the consumer has the power to be informed on each product and also the abilityto purchase anywhere.

The Internets future business model must become more organic to the user. It must be applicable at the right times almost on request or at the consumers convenience. This may seem very difficult right now but the accompanying technology is what may be the missing piece in making these ideas successful in the future. For right now the only technology that is using the Internet is the browser. What if the Internets code HTML were to be used for a more product orientated device where the code could be translated and depicted differently and the entire range of sites using this different standard would use something simple such as “.src” short for search or source. Then the device would be able to receive the information and save searches, products and services found and then upload that information to the users search base where they could find a plethora of information of products and services. Then advertising would be made so much more effective, especially as the trends of the consumer could be noted by the device and offers could be given further in the week or month. In fact the device could look at the current balance of the bank account and give its own opinion of what products would be best to buy to fit the consumers personal budget!

When thinking about the future of advertising it is essential that the advancement of technology be included in its thought. Currently we can receive an average of 4 megabytes of information per second on an average broadband connection. However the future hold gigabytes of information per second to the average user. Currently you can download a song faster than it takes to listen to the song. In the future you will be able to download a movie in about 16 minutes or less. What this means is that instead of streaming video online with the likes of Hulu.com and other online television sites, users will be able to download the content onto their iPods and will then be able to watch it anywhere at any time, putting the user in control. Not only that but with the possible advancement of television technology users will be able to click any product on the screen and see a list of information about the product. For example when you see the perfect the pair of shoes the wicked stepmother is wearing, you will be able to pause the show, click on the pair of shoes and an information box will appear telling you what comany makes them, who sells them, what other colors they come in and how much they are being sold for down the street, in the mall, in China and on Mars! This is an empowering technology that puts the user in the active role of searching out advertising instead of feeling subject to it. It is this type of advertising method that will need to be implemented where the user feels it is their choice to be subject to the advertisement.

At the end of the day advertising is needed, wether it is in the store, on the street, on the TV, online or any other means. It is needed to help our needs, desires, wants and even the economy. The biggest question for advertisers should be are we impressing the consumer at the right time. When is the right time for a consumer to receive an advertisement? Is it in the store, in the home before the store or when they are searching online? These are all very good questions and the answer can only be discovered with further research, but the answer I would go for is that the best time is when the user decides it is the best time. To place the user as the active product seeker. What will this effect be on business as a whole? Increadible! Capitalism at its most succesful when the manufacturers are competing against one another for value, price and quality. No longer will the product be a gimmick or a bad product with a good advertising campaign, the truth will create better products for the consumer as the bad ones will not be able to survive. Now the companies will be placed under the judgement seat of the consumer group who will rate, vote, poll, write, read and rely upon the opinions and experiences of others. This in my mind will no doubt be the future of the Internet and will create a wave of change within the business model of the global economy. It will have the potential to save millions if not billions of dollars for corporations and business advertising budgets.

In conclusion the Internets future lies within the advancement of technology, making the speed of the Internet much faster. This will allow greater amounts of video to be watched and greater amounts of advertisements to penetrate into the markets. This will allow televisions to be linked up to the Internet and cause product placement to be one of the most successful types of advertisement to be used. Also the increase of convergent technologies and devices will spark a huge market in the consumers allowing them to be more in control of their media environment. The iPhone is a great example of this and also the idea of a device that could also scan products and save search lists for future viewing would allow greater control for the consumer. Although the future of the Internet is always debated it can be said that advertising has to be a part of it. Without advertising the Internet would remain an informational medium without flashy pages, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube the list goes on. But the key for the Internet is to make sure that the local business owner can profit from it as well as the large companies. By doing this it will ensure a healthy economy and not a niche of monopolizing merchants. With the birth of the Internet, we also had the birth of the consumer power. By allowing such free communications on opinions and experiences on products todays businesses must be prepared to please the majority of their target market. The integration of advanced technology in regards to our computers, handheld devices and the Internet will determine the future course of the Internet. Eventually chatting online may actually be chatting online as a video conference with all 2000 Facebook friends. The future will tell all, but in my opinion may not be so far from what has been written here.

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