The Future of the Internet?

In a post the other day at the International Industrial SEO blog, I mentioned that in South Korea, home internet connection speeds of 20mbps are the norm, and 100mbps is possible in newer developments.  When watching the Olympics last night, I saw a commercial for a new fiber optic internet service, finally bringing speeds of up to 20mpbs to homes in the US.  Of course, this isn’t available in all areas yet, but it might be part of a new start in internet trends, something which the Olympics may help as well.

Yesterday, NBC announced that 50% of people using mobile phones to access the NBC Olympics sites and view videos were doing so for the first time.  That’s over 200,000 people every day trying out mobile media.  They’ve also seen millions of users send and view videos from NBC’s Olympics website.  The men’s 4×100 relay alone has been streamed over 1.7 million times.  Although most people are still watching Olympics on TV, there have been huge increases in traffic to Olympic related sites, with Yahoo!’s and NBC’s sites leading the way.  Again, the Olympic fever is drawing people to the Internet and websites to learn information, watch videos, and more.  Along the way, they’re also learning about new technology and its accessibility.  For those with mobile phones watching Olympics videos, they now know that their phone is a way for them to easily access the internet and find information.  Hopefully they’ll take that knowledge and use their mobile search abilities more often.  If we get better, faster internet connections as well, online media will definitely enjoy more popularity than it already does.

Blogging may also get a small boost as well.  It’s very popular already, and major news outlets like NBC and the NY Times are keeping them.  Most are written by reporters, but there are some written by athletes.  There’s nothing terribly new in these blogs in terms of how they’re delivered to readers or website visitors or the content, but maybe they are still reaching an audience that is new to blogs or has yet to see what a blog can do for spreading information and encouraging interaction online.   You can read more about blogging and businesses in this post.

If you’re wondering how this all might affect your industrial business, think of it in terms of longer internet trends.  The Olympics may only be a two-week event, but so far they’ve opened the door to new mobile users, millions of people are streaming and sending videos, and telecommunications companies are advertising faster, better internet.  All this media might not bring a new conversion tomorrow, but it has opened the door to our future internet possibilities.  Now it’ll be up to websites to provide the content and media to encourage internet users to make the most of their online experience.  And then those conversions will come.  Bottom line: Provide a content rich site that will attract visitors, with media, good text, and good usability.

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