The web in 15 years?

I found an interesting article on the BBC site of an interview with one of the first pioneers of the web. The interview is pretty simple in that it asks this gentleman (Tim Berners-Lee) where the web is going and what it will look like 30 years from its point of creation as well as where its gotten too so far. The article definitely made me think, especially since the web is what I now call my job and I was one of the early people who used it. I’ve been making money off the web in the form of work since 1996 so I’m a veteran of this technology and hearing what Tim had to say was definitely enlightening.

I totally agree with him that the web will become pretty much background noise within the next 15 or so years but I don’t think that the negative things about the web will subside with it. Spam and phishing attacks will diminish yes but this is an information medium and will continue to be such; advertising will pay for a vast amount of space to help people actually live off their blogging posts (which some already do) and will also pay for the delivery of a great deal of the information we receive.

The simple fact that the BBC doesn’t currently have any advertising on the page the article is on is a tribute to them (and the fact that they’re funded by the British Government). Just as a quick comparison test I clicked on one of the news articles on Yahoo!, and the first thing that I noticed wasn’t the article but a very large ad. I see this as a means for the web to help drive business and industry along with the small site that as Tim mentions push information, good useful information, to the masses. The only difference is that to get to the good stuff we’ll have to get through more and more commercialized portal sites; the perfect example of this from our past in a new media would be TV, it’s the commercials that pay for the shows (the content) that we like.

So my question to the few people that frequent my site: Where do you think the web will be in 15 years?

Links:
BBC News article
Yahoo! News Article (about Iran but just an example)