1. Convergence

With information overload at an all-time high, people are constantly looking for ways to simplify their lives. Convergence is one way to reduce the clutter, and you’ll see a major push toward consolidation of information in 2010. Why do people need an email account, Twitter account and a Facebook page? Answer is: they don’t. These applications have just evolved separately, but they all essentially do the same thing: communicate. In 2010, you’ll see more applications developed to converge communications.

2. Cloud Computing

Computing on the cloud has been on its way for a very long time and anyone who keeps up with this stuff knows that this is the direction we’re heading. But in 2010, cloud computing becomes a real reality. For real. In July of last year, Google released Chrome OS, an operating system meant to work exclusively with Web applications. This software product leaves desktop applications behind and does all of its computing on the cloud. In 2010, you’ll see more and more applications developed to work on the cloud and with operating systems such as Chrome OS.

3. Measurable Results

For a while, one thing people loved about Web marketing was the ability to measure the results. Click-throughs and conversion rates were easy to calculate. Then came social media. With the advent of Twitter, Facebook and the like, measuring your marketing dollars became very difficult. It wasn’t impossible; there were plenty of great Web applications that allowed you to measure your social marketing efforts. It just became way more difficult to do than pulling up your traditional analytics software.

In 2010, you’ll see marketers really start to get the hang of measuring online initiatives. New applications will arrive that will consolidate the data and make it easy to understand. As a result, you’ll see brands spend their marketing dollars more wisely. Some will realize that social media is not for them, and some will make an even greater push towards this new advertising market. 2010 is the year that we start to make sense of it all.

4. Location-Based Applications

We seem to spend more and more of our time “in the cloud”, yet no one can deny the importance that physical location has on our day-to-day lives. In 2010, it will still matter where you are and what’s around you.

This year, you’ll see more emphasis placed on this. GPS-based Web applications will emerge that will allow you to instantly connect with people in your immediate area. You’ll also be able to experience an “augmented reality” using your mobile device. See a restaurant you’d like to try? Point your cell-phone at it and get reviews, ratings and menu choices. See a home for sale? Use your handheld device to view price, square footage and days on market. With an abundance of GPS and Web-enabled mobile devices, 2010 is the year that location matters more than ever before.

5. The Real-Time Web

Last year, Facebook released its “Live News Feed” that allowed users to see activity from all their friends in real time. In 2010, we’ll be no more patient than we were last year and results in real time will be a priority. This year, more and more applications will emerge that will allow us to interact with the Web and the people on it instantaneously. No longer will you read a restaurant review from four months ago. Instead, you’ll interact with someone who just ate there through a real-time review site. Search will go real-time in 2010 as well. The results you pull up on Google or Bing may very well be sites that are publishing content as you search, rather than content that was indexed months ago. In 2010, the Web will get up to date.

As it did last year, the Web will grow up a little bit in 2010. It will become simpler, easier to use, more measureable, more instantaneous and an all-around better and more enjoyable medium.

What are HTML and CSS?

HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are your initial building blocks when creating a Web site. HTML is a language that is used to create the structure of your page; think about it like a well-structured outline or Word document. A set of HTML elements is available for displaying paragraphs, lists, images, forms, etc.

The Cascading Style Sheets comes into play by taking care of how those HTML elements and their content will be displayed, e.g. font styling. This is called the presentation layer and accomplished with the Cascading Style Sheet Language.

Who decides the standards and why does it take so long to implement them?

Generally speaking, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) decides and makes recommendations. It was founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web. The main focus of this international group of over 350 people is the development of standards for the Web.

Although it is the strongest force when it comes to Web standards, W3C didn’t keep a handful of individuals from forming the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) in June of 2004. Their concerns and complaints were that the W3C’s main focus had shifted from HTML to another language, XML, with the future plan of dismissing the HTML language completely.

Then in 2007, the W3C started the HTML working group, which adapted the work of the WHATWG, and used it as a starting point for its work. The group then released the first working draft in early 2008.

The development of CSS 3 was much less dramatic, but by no means any faster. The CSS working group, which is part of the W3C, released its first CSS 3 working draft in February of 2008. This release came almost 10 years after the release of CSS 2.

With the official release date for HTML 5 set for 2022 and CSS 3 taking over a decade to become a recommendation, the question roars: why does it take so long to define those specifications? The short answer is conflicts of interest among the variety of members with different motives. The important thing to know is that the official date doesn’t matter as much as the release of updated or new browsers that support the recommended standards.

What do the new standard features mean to me as a user?

When the standards are part of and supported by all browsers, including the finally-catching-up-to-standards browser Internet Explorer, developers will be capable of creating richer interfaces that are custom-tailored based upon the user and its user agent (browser). You, the end user, will benefit from HTML 5 and CSS 3 when these standards are put into action to create Web sites that are more interactive and easier to use.

Examples of some upcoming features:

• HTML 5: http://html5demos.com/
• CSS 3: http://www.css3.info/preview/