In older times we talked about open systems, interfaces and standards. They have luckily settled by now. For web 2.0 concerns, API’s are standard. There are basically no closed systems and services any more. Everything is connectable, everything is open, everything is standard. That’s good. But still is requires manual effort, human thoughts and design and a lot of testing to ensure, that it really works the way it supposed to work.
The future should hold more. Our vision for the web cubed era is that services connect with each other automatically based on open standards, based on circumstances, based on business models, based on consumer behavior, based on profiles, based on authorizations, and so forth. The web services of the future should be able to recognize what the user, which must not be a human being but any kind of device / thing connected to the web, is intending to do and connect the way to the target and fulfill the job.
We call this ability “self-aggregating”. Sounds cool. Integration technologies, software techniques and business models will make this possible. We are expecting first samples in the “smart search” area for text-based search and paving the way to the most desired outcome. Then will expect samples in the audio / music arena, in terms of listening patterns, sharing and seamless integration in homes, cars, offices and on-the-fly. Lastly self-aggregating services may occur in the video arena, connecting advertisement, new video releases, location based services, social networking and other payment services into one use case and provide an automated experience for any consumer, which again must not always be a real person, but a device or any kind of connected thing.