Artificial intelligence is going to change everything. Nowhere is this more visible than with the Internet. The digital world can evolve at a pace many orders of magnitude quicker than the physical. For this reason, we are looking at something that might only be 2-3 years out.
Are we going to discuss the shift to Web 3.0? Actually no. This is a warning of the potential peril
Since the formation of the Internet, we heard a great deal about "clicks". Over time, we heard the word "clickbait" appear, a headline meant to generate nothing more than clicks.
Clicks are the foundation of the most common business model online. Digital advertising, to a large degree, is based upon clicks. How many people can you get to your webpage?
The click was the basis of the Internet from it started. Since we are dealing with hypertext, the idea of clicking on a link to take one to another page is a basic activity. Search engines were developed to provide people with the links to the information the engines thought they were seeking. Of course, to see the information, this means clicking through.
So what is the zero click Internet?
It is essentially an Internet where no click is required to get the information desired. Instead, we see the information provided without moving to another website. Companies like Google and Meta started this process a few years ago with different aspects of their platforms.
Chatbots are taking this to an entirely new level.
With AI being incorporated into digital platforms, the need to leave will be reduced. The information will be provided from the model that is incorporated.
This, naturally, will have catastrophic results for many industries.
Ultimately, this means the demise of the website. This is something I mentioned in the past with the advent of AI agents. It will likely happen before they become mainstream.
As stated, this is likely to occur in the next 2-3 years.
So what does the future Internet look like?
The fundamental unit will shift from the webpage to the chatbot. We are already seeing this as Google integrates its model into its search. Essentially, a website is becoming a prompt. Websites get further buried as Google provides the information via its model.
A key takeaway is the mega digital platforms (Google and Facebook) will likely dominate even more. In the process, we will see a massive shift.
For example, advertising is going to be swallowed up. They already account for a majority of the advertising dollars. Small advertising networks are going to die. Google and Meta run their own ad platforms. Those feeding websites will find their revenues rapidly declining as the traffic dwindles.
Online publishers will be toast. This will simply scale up, starting with the tiny ones and eating the larger ones. The survivors will simply be the ones that contract with Big Tech to provide data. In other words, their existence will be to create content to feed the models which will provide the information to users.
Of course, without websites, SEO means nothing. That is an industry that was designed to get the website in front of more people. Much of this meant making it as friendly to the search engine (mainly Google) as possible.
Without websites, there is no SEO necessary.
Ultimately, we are looking at billion dollar industries going away in the next 24-36 months.
If this is a dystopian view, as stated, it is a warning.
The importance of Web 3.0 cannot be stressed enough.
What we are seeing is actually a part of it. One of the core elements of Web 3.0 is AI. However, another is decentralization. Here is where the trend described in this article goes counter to it.
So how can Web 3.0 avoid this dystopian future?
The basic premise is a digital platform, AI, and eyeballs. It is the last part that will become a major issue. We know the majority of the Internet is on the major platforms.
At this point, we have to revert back to the basics: incentivization and ownership.
The challenge for Big Tech is they, for the most part, have no incentivization mechanism. Sure, there are some who benefit from the ad revenue yet this is not the majority.
At the same time, very few users have any stake in these platforms. Microsoft, Google, and Meta are publicly traded. However, the number of users who own shares is miniscule. In other words, the majority of users get no financial benefit from the increasing profitability of these companies.
Web 3.0 offers another solution. The fact anyone can gain stake in a Web 3.0 platform is encouraging. In some instances, purchase is not required. People are able to get rewarded or earn the value capture token. It is where cryptocurrency makes the difference.
Of course, to be successful, platforms have to provide the features and services that people require. This is what Big Tech excels at.
We are looking at a race. The clock is ticking.
Consider this point: we are already seeing AI summaries of articles posted on these platforms. Google and Meta are using algorithms to provide consumers with quick hits of information, none of which they generated. This will become widespread.
As mentioned, some of the larger publishers will be paid for the content. The rest, however, will simply disappear.
Once again, the solution is to have stake in what we are using. To me, there is really no alternative.
What is going to get people to use a platform? Either it has everything they are looking at our there is some financial incentive. We know the latter is not going to come from the major platforms.
Over the decades, a couple dozen companies hijacked the Internet. We cannot do anything online without utilizing a number of these. Unfortunately, due to the pace of technological advancement, we are looking at a compacting of time. What took a couple decades can occur in a few years.
We are going to see the zero click Internet before people know it. This will change the advertising models and economic distribution. In fact, people need to start considering how to change their approach. Content creators, both individuals and companies, are going to be caught unprepared.
