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Controversy abounds regarding what the next era of the Web will be like. Certainly, the Internet will boast even greater bandwidth for faster, more graphically rich 3-D applications. Many Internet visionaries claim that in the coming age of Web 3.0, information databases will be layered and connected in new ways that enable software agents to sift through the data and process it automatically for users. For instance, the search engines of Web 2.0 provide us with relevant Web pages when we submit a search query. The software agents of Web 3.0 will reputedly gather information about our interests based on our Web-usage patterns and automatically send us updates on topics they have concluded are important to us. Amazon.com does a basic version of this, sending customers e-mails describing books and other products that may be of interest, given customers’ previous purchases. Indeed, some observers argue that we’re already living in the age of Web 3.0.

Web 3.0 will also likely involve ever-increasing mobile connectivity and convergence. Thanks to smartphones and PDAs, Internet connections have been freed from desktops and laptops, further solidifying the Internet as a major vehicle for delivering media content of all kinds—movies, television, books, news, and more—to increasingly converged devices. Much of this content is still created by traditional industries, but how the content is consumed (and paid for) continues to evolve with Internet technology, bringing about the popularity of sites, services, and devices like iTunes, Hulu, Netflix Streaming, Spotify, Amazon’s Kindle, and so on. These changes in consumption and distribution cannot always be predicted, but they will almost certainly render Web 3.0 even more central to other media industries—and to our daily media experiences.