Thursday, April 8, 2010

Future of the Internet


The Internet is one technology which have evolved so much in so little time. In not more than 50 years, the Internet has made itself kown to almost everyone. Even within the past fifteen years, the Internet has reinvented itself in many ways. There have been various ways of innovation since the Internet started. Right now, we not only shop, bank, work, play, and meet people online, we can also share information about what we do every single minute (I.e Twitter). We read online, watch videos online, listen to music online etc... Simply put, almost everything can be done on the Internet. So what's next?

It is difficult to predict how the Internet will grow. But, one thing for sure is that the Internet will continue to grow. Some observations made by experts are that the current addressings system - called IPv4 - which has about four billion possible IP addresses will not be enough in the next two years. Hence, researchers have been working on the next generation of addresses, known as the IPv6. In addition, the number of wirelessly connected devices worldwide will rise from an estimated 4.6 billion today to 50 billion by 2020. Mobile 3G networks are also faced with the issue of increasing users and this have proved to be a strain on their networks. All these observations point to the trend of the increasing growth of the Internet.

So what are some of the predictions for the future of the Internet? There are some very interesting discussions on the web about what may surface with the growth of the Internet.

For one, audio web surfing. This means that as opposed to reading and clicking, the audience can tell the browser where they want to go with spoken commands. With this, it may also generate opportuinities for web developers for multi-lingual sites. Secondly, the web may be surfed on just any device. In addition to surfing the net on the computer and phone, the Internet may be integrated into every device such adding a touch screen to ones refrigerator. This would definitely create new opportunites and challenges for interfacing. Thirdly, there may be the use of satellite television through the Internet. There are different ways for people to watch shows from the computer linking to the television. However these methods more than often require a lot of loading time. Having the Internet provide satellite television shows through the Internet, users can easily connect to a wider screen of clearer quality faster and conveniently.

As the saying goes: "Nothing is impossible." The future of the Internet may be unknown as of today, however, it is without a doubt that the future of the Internet is going to be an interesting one.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Gogoyoko

This week's blogging:

1) Visit a new social network site and write about its usefulness.

When posed with this topic to blog about, I was wondering what constitues as new? Must it be a brand new site or would it be considered new as long as it is unfamiliar to me? If it was the latter, things would be much easier because almost all social network site are consider unfamiliar to me. Even the site which is considered as most common today, 'facebook'. To be honest, I do not have any facebook account or accounts with any social network sites. However, even if that's the case, I highly doubt I'll be exempted from doing this blog post. So let the research for social network site start proper! I chanced upon gogoyoko.com and immediately fell in love with its name. It's a very catchy name and I thought it sounded cute. Hence decided to blog about this particular website. Gogoyoko is a social music marketplace where music fans can listen to music online and buy music directly from the artists. In July 2009, the site became available for everyone in Ireland, and in October 2009, it was made available for those in Scandinavia.

Apart from the music store, the website incorporates social networking properties where artists, record labels, music fans and professionals can create profiles, interact and contribute to the music scene and the store.

There are various reasons as to why users of Gogoyoko fall in love with this social network site. First and foremost, the 'ratings & reviews' section is an area whereby users can browse through to see the comments of others who have bought particular albums. In addition, users who wish to write a review may also be given a prize if they are deemed as the top rater! Next, the 'Artist + Album Recommendations' section allows the user to create a section on the left side of their personal profile. With regular participation on the site, Gogoyoko will recommend possible albums that the user may like base on their streaming and buying records. Users are able to create and fix their own personal playlist so it will have more flow. In addition, the site have brought in a whole lot of German electronica and British indie into the store, thereby giving users an option of importing a whole load more of great music into their playlist.

In essence, as a social music marketplace, Gogoyoko brings interaction to a new level for music lovers in Ireland and Scandinavia.