The internet will continue to "build out" in terms of transport and delivery for the next 5 years.
I've been saying for 10 years that by 2010 we'll be able to pull high speed access to the internet out of the air virtually anywhere and that it'll be affordable enough to be widespread. 5 years away and I see no reason to alter that prediction.
That brings about a whole new level of connectivity and "real time" applications. I would anticipate life altering applications we haven't yet thought of to come about as a result of large portions of society being "online" virtually all the time. May seem unappealing to some of us, but note the current group of teens and their IM and SMS usage via cellphone.
Blogs are only the beginning. There'll be enormous amounts of information and home grown content flowing onto the internet. And search engines as we know them today will seem primitive. My guess is we have true "personal" searchs in 5 years, the engines may even custom build content from multiple sources to tailor information to be presented to us EXACTLY the way the individual wants it.
As for our industry, porn will ALWAYS exploit any new technology.
It's gonna get worse before it gets better due to billing and scamming. But there's demand and a need for the problems of online transactions to be solved. Within 5 years we'll almost certainly have a reasonable method of definitive online identification and authentication widely available and Visa will have no choice but to finally embrace it.
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