Will it really take 5 years for Canada's mobile web market to catch up with the rest of the world? That's what Brian Fling, author of dotmobi Mobile Web Developers Guide, said recently when he spoke at Web Directions North. Hmm... I'm not so sure about that.

In my mind, it may not matter before long. Mobile carriers selling high-priced EDGE/EVDO service might end up losing out to WiFi. When devices like the iPod Touch become cheaper and more common, and public hot-spots become more pervasive, using a cell-phone to access the web will be like using a land-line to make a long-distance call (instead of Skype or iChat). And this could take way less than 5 years to happen. I for one have already gone that route. I hate using my cell-phone to browse. I carry my iPod Touch around wherever I go, and login to WiFi networks, giving me a real browser and a nice big touch-screen that makes browsing a pleasure. And with an SDK around the corner, there will be a flood of mobile widgets coming soon to do just about everything I could ever want. For someone who doesn't like talking on the phone, a device like this is perfect.

Seems like every startup these days is launching a new product or service with "social networking" features. And predictably, every old-school web property is either retooling their current offering (or acquiring another company) to provide similar features and functionality. So what gives? Why has everything suddenly become so... social? And more importantly, what does it mean for us as a species?

In the old days of the Web, one of the key selling points of this great new technology called the Internet was anonymity. For the first time ever, you could get access to, what seemed at the time like, an unlimited amount of information, without anyone else knowing what you were up to. Initially, this basically meant two things: porn and bomb-making. At least, that's what my peers were really excited about back in '94. But things really exploded when e-commerce came along and suddenly you could buy virtually anything anonymously, including everything from clothing (lingerie) to hardware (sex toys), to books (porn) and movies (more porn). Oh, and of course you could finally complete your childhood collection of ultra-rare Star Wars action figures. Life was wonderful back then, and none of your family, friends, or colleagues had to know about it.   read more »