Web 2.0
So I was thinking about something today: What if you could have a single “account” for the entire internet. I’m sure people have thought about this before, and I’m sure it will play some part in the “cloud computing” push, but its the first time I have really thought about it. But my plan goes like this:
You could have a single ID for everything internet related. You could associate all logins for Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, iGoogle, Flickr, etc., into a single account. Different websites could then choose whether or not to they wanted to use this new “Universal Login.”
You could then personalize your browswer and even make it “portable”, storing all of your Firefox Bookmarks (Foxmarks), Toolbars, History, etc to a single login, and stored somewhere on the internet. All public browsers (internet cafes, schools, libraries, etc.,) would essentially open up to a homepage with a Login page. From there you could either click “skip” and browse anonymously like you do today, or you could type in your login and password, and get all of your personalized settings that you use at home. For those worried about identity theft, you could get a “usb password key,” with a password stored on it that you would plug in to the computer, and you could just stick it onto your keyring. You have keys to your house and your car, why not have a key to your internet (emphasis on “your”).
You could also associate yourself with different tags describing yourself: for instance, I could have tags that say “web developer, gamer, musician, indie music, boise idaho, etc.,” and web developers could then track demographics for their website and find their target audience. It could also be useful for the new dynamic advertising that is used by Google in creating relevant ads.
I’ll have to give this some more thought, it was only 5 minutes ago that all this came to me while browsing Webbr and using Stumble. Now that I think about it, Google has done a lot of this already within their own webspace, but getting it standardized and universal across the entire internet would be awesome. Anyways, the transition towards web 2.0 in the coming years should be really interesting.
