Pew / Internet just released their latest installment of “The Future of the Internet” where they ask various people what the Internet will be like 20 years from now. I think the fact that this is only Pew’s 3rd installment in the series speaks volumes.

Think about where the internet was 20 years ago — heck — 10 years ago and you can see it’s daunting to even attempt and imagine what anything will be like 20 years from now. I’d be tempted to guess jetpacks for everyone (solar-powerered, natch), food in pill form and (tastefully) metallic clothing. That, or a zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic dust bowl with ragged clothing.

With a quick scan through the responses to a question about the future mobile technology, I’d peg a lot of the predictions becoming reality in the next 2 – 5 years (if they’re not already here now. For example, “Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.” Somebody should get these folks an iPhone.

Another example; “The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations” — I think that’s in my job description.

On a semi-related note, Kevin Kelly has a great talk on the next 6,500 days of the web. His position—which I agree with—is the web of the future will be radically different that what we know and love today.

Hat tip to Advertising Lab

The Price is Right (Isn’t It?) Why shouldn’t made-for-web productions should have budget as big as their televised counterparts? This article aims to lay the groundwork putting a fair price on your digital blood, sweat and tears.

Springwise – This is a recent addition to the Review category in my RSS feed. Basically, it’s a steady stream of new business ideas—some new interesting, some stuff that’s been in the market for a while. Kind of a Trend Hunter with a business focus. Worth a look.

dev.mobi recently relaunched as mobiForge. I hadn’t really spent a lot of time exploring this site before the refresh; there’s a ton of content available. They have resources for developers, designers, marketers and more. It looks like a great resource for anyone who’s involved in the mobile space.

And if your mindset is more design thinking/trend hunting/cool data, mobiForge has a sister site, mobiThinking. The content’s not as deep as the main site, but it’s worth an add to the ‘ol feedreader.

Wecome to the social (media) revolt – the gist: by its very nature, the web is in a constant state of change and its always been about making connections, so why is social media seen as a new, groundbreaking idea?

I have to agree with Joshua’s angle; the fundamentals haven’t changed, but the tools we all use to connect/socialize/etc. are getting easier and easier for non-geeks to use, which allows more people to participate and brings the “social” bit of social media to the fore.

A simple idea that provided hours of entertainment this summer is popping up again: John McCain Is Your Jalopy and Sarah Palin Is Your New Bicycle’s Flat Tire. I think the web will be a little less entertaining once the elections are over.

*people who make websites include: all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, etc.

You can find the 2007 survey results here.

(i)Phone as human to digital interface. — a (relatively) old-y but goodie from the gang at Zeus Jones posing the idea that connected devices like the iPhone a well positioned to become true extensions of yourself — with the ability to document virtually everywhere you travel and everything you see, hear and do.

Last but not least, a classic video from Charles and Ray Eames. I was explaining this video to someone recently — if you’ve never seen it, it’s worth your time to watch the whole thing.

powers of ten :: charles and ray eames from bacteriasleep on Vimeo.

The folks at CP+B are talking integrated producers — meaning they pair specialists in web, video and interactive on projects. As they work together, those specialists push projects to new places with the added benefit of learning new skills along the way. As they begin to see projects from different perspectives, you end up with a video producer who could excel at creating (or overseeing the creation of) a website, web pros shooting videos for online spots, etc.

This kind of idea has been knocking around in my head for the past year or so, but this video does a great job of putting the disparate ideas in my head down on pixels. I think this approach is a natural evolution of online media and those who create it.

Watch it ASAP — I think Creativity locks their content behind a subscription page after 7 days or so.

A friend of mine connected me with the staff at Animal Haven a few months ago. At the time, they had a website that was hard to maintain, difficult to navigate and not focused on their goal: adoptions. After talking with the staff and learning where they wanted to take the organization and the website, I was able to design a site that better addressed their audience and their mission.

The homepage was revamped to prominently feature adoptions; random photos of their adoptable pets (courtesy of PetFinder.com) are immediately visible, and visitors can view all of Animal Haven’s adoptable pets without leaving the site. I integrated tools they were already using, like Google Calendar for events and Google Checkout for donations. Thanks to the new content management system, they can easily manage the site and incorporate content from YouTube and PhotoBucket. Last but not least, I added a blog to help them share their success stories, shelter news, event information and more.

I’m really happy with the results; special thanks to the staff at Animal Haven for all of their input and effort. If you’re in the Kansas City area and you’d like to adopt a pet, AnimalHavenKC.org is the place to go.

Results:
Since launching the site two weeks ago, overall visits have increased 38.5%. Pageviews have increased 180%. The bounce rate has dropped over 72% — from 66% to 18%, the average time spent on the site has increased 144%, and blog subscriptions have been increasing every day.

Be like water.

Fluid came along and suddenly you can make any web app or web page a stand-alone desktop application. It’s also known as a site-specific browser (or SSB for you nerdy types).

What can Fluid do for you?

How does it work, you ask? Using the example above, maybe you want to follow Google Reader (i.e. play) in one space and develop websites (i.e., work) in another. If you’re using a single browser for both tasks, you’re seemingly SOL. Sure, you can open two windows and place each one in it’s own space. But when you quit the browser (or it crashes), all your careful window-shifting gets the shaft. With Fluid, you simply make Google Reader (or Gmail, Facebook, or any other online app) a standalone app and launch it in its own space (making the most of application assignments, natch).

The current state of web standards support in email can best be described as dismal. It’s a throwback to the early days of the web with each client (both desktop and online) offering wildly varied levels of support for basic HTML and CSS. You can see the results of ESP’s client tests here.

It’s a grassroots movement spearheaded by the fine folks at Freshview, makers of Campaign Monitor, some of the easiest to use email newsletter software around.

Find out what you can do to help and follow the latest developments on the ESP blog.