

Ask HN: Are we experiencing the internet's golden age? - l33tbro

If not, when was&#x2F;will be?  I think right now is pretty freakin amazing ... but definitely feels like the end of something with inciming govt regulation.
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gexla
Wow, I hope not. Is this all we get?

I don't think of what we have as being amazing at all. As a web developer, I'm
still spending too much time building brochure-ware. Sure, I build full on
apps as well, but many of those apps still aren't very interesting. That's not
what keeps me going though, most important to me is the thrill of helping
people build their businesses.

As for capabilities, we still don't have enough speed in much of the world.
There are still too many people even in the U.S. who can't get fast enough
internet to act as replacement for cable T.V.

We haven't yet arrived to the internet of things (we can do this, but it's
very early days.)

We don't have interesting devices to connect to the internet. We are still
limited to desktop computers, cell phones and tablets. If I want to get any
real work done, then it's desktop (or laptop.) I want a freaking screen which
can appear anywhere in my house as a hologram, follow my gestures and
understand my voice!

There is no way this is the golden age of the internet. But really, what is
the internet but a utility? The internet itself isn't interesting, but what we
can do with it. Electricity isn't interesting, but rather it's the devices we
plug into the wall (or charge up) that's interesting.

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l33tbro
I'm so stealing your electricity simile. Nice.

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Raphmedia
Personally I feel as if the golden age is already gone by, and all we are left
right now is social media.

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benologist
I agree - we're well into another golden age of mobile and the web as we know
it is on the way to becoming also-rans depending on Mozilla.

In many ways web is _still_ just trying to replace or catch up to desktop
software and for the most part is still just replacing once-off-purchases with
subscriptions and feature-culling.

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shawnreilly
I'm not sure about a Golden Age, but I do think that a large number of awesome
technologies are currently converging to provide new and amazing capabilities.
Virtualization Technology (both at the System and Network Layers) used in in
conjunction with Optical Fiber Technology is evolving the underlying
Infrastructure of the Internet to be faster, more resilient, and more
intelligent. The concept of an Application Programming Interface (API) used in
conjunction with Cloud Based Methodologies towards Service Delivery are
potentially laying the groundwork for a true Semantic Web (Web 3.0) as
described by Tim Berners-Lee (in my opinion anyway). These are just a few
short examples of converging Technology that will create amazing new
possibilities. The Internet of things is on the way, and it won't stop there.
I believe that many of these new capabilities will revolutionize other aspects
of Life, such as Healthcare and Education. I personally consider innovation to
be constant, so if we are in a Golden Age, I don't think it's going to end
anytime soon. Good times!

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icedchai
The golden age was pre-1999 before all the regular people showed up.

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krapp
I miss geocities...

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l33tbro
Yeah same ... fondly remember when a website was called a "homestead".

