Evolution of the internets

[Glenn]

I was reading one of the tech sites the other day and saw an interesting blub/article on the internet. Of course I forgot which site and I can't find it now. Anyways...

It talked about how most of us first experienced "the internet" with services like AOL. But it wasn't really the internet, it was more of a walled in version...people wanted more. So the dialup model went away; people didn't buy a service, they bought access...and got everything.

Now things are almost coming back to the walled in version. You see it more on smartphones. You don't go to angrybirds.com...you play the Angry Birds app. Same with some forums, websites, ect. It's almost as if we're back to where we started...sorta.

 

[wa-loaf]

I was reading one of the tech sites the other day and saw an interesting blub/article on the internet. Of course I forgot which site and I can't find it now. Anyways...

It talked about how most of us first experienced "the internet" with services like AOL. But it wasn't really the internet, it was more of a walled in version...people wanted more. So the dialup model went away; people didn't buy a service, they bought access...and got everything.

Now things are almost coming back to the walled in version. You see it more on smartphones. You don't go to angrybirds.com...you play the Angry Birds app. Same with some forums, websites, ect. It's almost as if we're back to where we started...sorta.

I don't think Angry Birds is a good example. There were always games you bought that were not part of the internet. BUT your devices are now doing a lot of the things you used the internet for in the past. Apps for finding restaurants, gas stations, shopping, directions, banking, etc. all cut out the need for a browser and search.

 

[Nick]

I've actually thought a lot about this. As I am also building a mobile app recently :lol: (unrelated to AZ).

I think over time we will see more browser-based apps come back on smartphones as well, but for now, it's just easier and often quicker to launch a native app than it is to go to the browser. AZ for example is much quicker and easier to navigate with Tapatalk than it is through a mobile browser, in my view at least.

I do think over time that will change as more and more sites and web2.0 startups tackle mobile versions of their site that are actually usable, but that will take time.

I will say that a big difference between today's mobile apps and the apps (programs) you had on a desktop in the past has to do with where the data is stored. Many mobile apps are storing data externally, whereas programs on PC's store them locally (often). The benefit of external storage of course being that you can access it from any device, anywhere, on a new phone, on a tablet, on a computer, wherever, and get the same results back. As opposed to having word docs for example that you need to email to yourself or whatever.

 

[bvibert]

I never understood the appeal to AOL and the like. Too 'walled' IMHO. I never accessed through a service like AOL for that reason, I don't want someone else filtering my content. My first experience with the 'internet' was dialing in via a BBS who also started serving as an ISP. No filtering, no silly "key words", just the internet and world wide web in all of it's glory.

I think Jens is right, Angry Birds isn't a good example, but apps on mobile devices that eliminate the need to navigate to a website via a browser are. While there's some similarities to that app model for sure, but I don't think it's really going backwards to the AOL model.

 

[Glenn]

It'll be interesting to see if apps could be run out of the mobile browser. That would be pretty cool. Maybe mobile devices will have the capability to do that in a few years.

Yeah, Angry Birds wasn't the best example. Maybe I should have used Yelp or something like that.

 

[Geoff]

It'll be interesting to see if apps could be run out of the mobile browser. That would be pretty cool. Maybe mobile devices will have the capability to do that in a few years.

Yeah, Angry Birds wasn't the best example. Maybe I should have used Yelp or something like that.

Apps have been run out of browsers for years. It's this thing called Java.

The reason you download them on smart phones is because the bandwidth is so limited. You only want to do it once rather than every time you run the application. You only want to move essential data over the cellular data connection. This technique was also used in the early days of dialup modems. AOL, for example, kept as much as possible on the local PC.