Lauren Currier writes....
The lifespan of the Internet is a heartbeat. Thirteen years ago your idle wonderings about the natural health benefits of Himalayan Goji berries went unanswered. ‘Google’ was just another one of your one year old’s senseless coos. And being friends with someone quite literally meant that you liked the other person or, well, had at least spoken to them before. That world is a faint memory now.
Our interactive gurus recently gave a refreshingly retro show-and-tell highlighting the watershed moments of the digital revolution. Aside from their Oscar-worthy performances, what impressed me most was the growing rate at which companies are eating each other up. AOL spent years picking up steam and gaining street cred before it could acquire Time Warner. News Corp on the other hand waited a mere two years before snatching up MySpace. These days anyone can be sitting on a gold mine—poised at just the right place, after under-the-radar-fame and before the tipping point.
No one truly knows what the Internet will look like in 5,10,15 years—strange to think considering we created it. I suppose that’s what makes it such an interesting experiment in what Eric Schmidt of Google sees as anarchy. But, in the end, it’s not so much about lawless chaos as it is millions of ideas taking shape at once. All guided by the question “what if….”
Comments