As technology evolves, the demands from the emerging generation drives the technology which the next emerging generation will take for granted.
I joined the internet when 14k4 modems existed, I dialled up to access a bulletin board and could post messages and read replies. Then shortly afterwards came internet service providers, and the internet.
For me I was lucky to access the internet, for a small fee I enjoyed free local calls, and most of the time my ISP had enough modems to handle the number of users dialling in. Feels odd saying this now. I probably have more bandwidth available to me at home than my ISP had back in the day for a fraction of the cost.
HTML hardly existed, as it evolved, browsers battled it out, oh the endless CDs with dial up and browsers being offered !
The battle of the search engine(s) started, AOL, GeoCities, altavista. Search engines such as AOL, MSN, Lycos, and askJeeves fought for the top spot.
So whats next?
The pattern here, is, what works today, will eventually fade to be replaced with something new providing better more smarter results.
We may be satisfied with Facebook, but people who are <20 don’t use it as their primary communication network. “Its something my parents use”. For them its the now, snapchat, whatsapp, weechat, a different type of community (away from their parents!).
As a product developer, we must look for the next system, else our technology will be outdated. As a project sponsor we must not stay still. Today’s Google could be replaced with a completely different source, much like Facebook’s market divide.