The future of the Web is 3D, not video

Since its introduction, Internet has exerted immense influence on people’s lives everywhere. After Google’s appearance all spheres of human activities changed dramatically. We often ask the question what is going to happen in the years to come and how technology development and consumers will adapt to each other.

For example, several years ago online video was a vague idea due to limited bandwidth and slow connections. For many years the issue of online video was commented and a lot of promises were made about it. The advance of the Internet mad? this concept attainable. Nowadays there are so many video site and services. People freely watch video, download and upload it. It is even strange if there are no video elements on information or amusement sites. For three years only YouTube managed to bring people together through offering them a possibility to share and watch video online. Thus, the hole between professional movie makers and amateurs has been filled. Both experts and ordinary people make use of video not only to keep their memories and events, but in real time as well.

However, online video has some restrictions with respect to interactivity for example. The more complex and state-of-art 3-D environments will be its serious rival. They offer better interactivity, more attractiveness and customization due to the graphic technologies development. 3-D environments are released in different formats and meet users’ demands in many spheres, including news and entertainment. Computer graphics are employed to obtain realistic, three-dimensional representations of both real and invented images and provide them to millions of people who are able to interact with these images and with each other. All these are not possible with video.

Although in the recent years millions were spent to keep the dominance of online video, it has several disadvantages. In spite of its development, video has preserved its original nature. In its essence video is a linear, passive experience which should be watched without a possibility to make any modifications by the viewers. In other words, video has preserved the standards of the first films.

Interactivity for the web video extends to the peripheral context – comments below the Flash video player, text links in the navigation column, commentary on blogs. The video itself does not have these characteristics. Objects on the video screen are not linked. Common users are not able to change it according to their desire. What is seen depends on what the creator of the video decides to employ in its making. Although much experimentation has been made with online video, its linear nature is not subject to modification.

In spite of the linearity of video, it still has a future potential. More and more people begin to use cameras and Internet publishing tools. Besides, video is a good way for implementation of certain tasks – recording nature, people, delivering news.

However, video will give way to graphic technologies which will reveal the interactive capabilities of moving images accessed through the Internet. The 3-D computer environments that are used are more visually attractive and clear than video. They also offer more possibilities for modification and interaction and can be adapted to individual needs. In the future new devices, formats and technologies will emerge and will be accessible to authors and users. Computer-generated environments will eventually find their secure position in the world of Internet media.

Virtual-reality tools, virtual worlds like Second Life and multiplayer online games like Warhammer are just indicators of what is going to appear. The development of hardware technologies and software tools will bring about 3-D content types that will offer much more possibilities than video existing now. Among the advantages of 3-D environments are not only providing numerous kinds of video programming, but also the ability for social interaction and customization. Various attempts have already been made to improve virtual worlds, but the programmes that are going to be released will really affect audience’s views and fight for people’s time and interest.

During the next years even more users will be willing to create. People will be overwhelmed by their video and media experience.