The Web is Dead Already

Use of the Internet with apps instead of browsing the WWW is the newest trend with only 40% of Internet traffic being HTML-based web-browsing.  Wired Magazine goes on to say "This was all inevitable. It is the cycle of capitalism. The story of industrial revolutions, after all, is a story of battles over control. A technology is invented, it spreads, a thousand flowers bloom, and then someone finds a way to own it, locking out others. It happens every time."

We are letting this happen despite our recent battles for Internet freedom because it seems we consumers prefer speed over flexibility and we love having things delivered to us rather than us having to seek them out.  Many of the newer Internet applications "are closed, often proprietary, networks" but we are becoming more likely to pay for instant delivery of the kind of content we want - be it news, movies or games - rather than seeking it out for ourselves.  I guess we will soon be paying for applications to do our research for us while we continue to collect our academic degrees.