The following is the personal speculation of the writer, but is based on closely following current trends taking place within the Internet.

After spending the entire morning adding numerous icons for readers of AdMarkTech to have the ability to receive feeds using Feed Burner, Yahoo, Google, Net Vibes, News Gator, Bloglines and Webwag, it suddenly dawned on me that I was preparing my site for the Web 3.0 syndication explosion.  In addition, I also added functionality to join the AdMarkTech MyBlogLog community and a link to the Blog Catalogue.

What this means is that anyone who happens to find my site and decide they like what they see, can get more of it whenever they want.  It also means, I’m not advertising anywhere to ‘push’ my content in front of people.  Instead, people are ‘pulling’ my content at will.  This is one of the concepts of Web 3.0.  But it’s not a new concept, just one that people are slowly beginning to familiarize themselves with.

So just when you think you don’t need to rely on Internet surfers finding your site using Google Search and having the headache of ensuring that you haven’t inadvertently (or advertently) done something to your site that would make Google (heaven forbid the thought) exclude your site from its search results, look who owns Feed Burner.  That’s right – Google bought Feed Burner around this time last year.  Was it truly foresight or are Google so big that their actions actually dictate the future development of the Internet?

Online video content in the US, including User Generated Video and Professionally Produced Videos, attracted an astounding 11.5 billion views in March 2008 according to ComScore.  As reported recently on AdMarkTech, video viewing on the Internet is becoming increasingly more popular.  Due to this rise, advertising budgets are shifting from television and newspaper advertising to online and mobile.  From the 11.5 billion video views in March 4.3 billion views (accounting for 38% of the total number of videos viewed) were from online video properties owned by Google.  Despite having the majority of online video views, Google has yet to develop online video advertising tools.  This makes for a good market for companies such as Adap.tv and Scan Scout, unless Google decides to buy one of these companies (which is my prediction).

The next race for Web 3.0 domination is analytic tools.  Back in March 2005, Google acquired Urchin Software, a company specializing in Web Analytics.  The developed platform is now known as Google Analytics, but back in 2005 did Google have any idea that user data would be so key to the future of the Internet?  In May 2008, online and mobile advertising has become such an art using targeted analytics providing user behavior and profiling that companies selling ads based on this technology can charge $250 or even $300 CPM.  Knowing someone’s actions and reactions even before the launch of a marketing campaign is crucial knowledge that Web 3.0 will be based on.  Finally, instead of putting 30 second commercials in front of mass audiences, specific users can be chosen and presented with an overlay video ad that has no interruption on their viewing experience.  They even have the freedom of choice to click and see the full overlay or continue their viewing experience.

There is something remarkable about freedom of choice.  It dates all the way back to Eve and the forbidden apple.  In fact, if memory serves me correctly Eve was targeted by a snake that used an advanced user profiling system to determine that Eve had a more inquisitive mind than the other living consumer in the world at that time, Adam.  Despite several warnings not to touch the fruit on the trees, Eve just couldn’t resist the temptation.  The apple was from the tree of knowledge and once bitten into Eve had a strange sensation called consumer guilt.  Next thing, in a bid to cover her nakedness, she had to leave the Garden of Eden in search of a designer clothes outlet.

Web 3.0 comes with an extra dose of freedom of choice, based on years, time and money being spent on knowing who is more likely to choose yes.  These things have a habit, as we see dating back many years, to spiral out of control.  Next time you receive a special offer for metaphorical apples, think very carefully.