A Glimpse Into The 'Web 3.0'

In the very near future, your PC will learn what you want by tracking your online activities and what you do at your computer, then use the Internet and the interests of other people like you to try to fulfill all your wishes.

Limited glimpses into that future are possible now. One example that came to my attention today is a new service called Tourb.us ("Tourbus" using the URL http://tourb.us).Tourbus scans your iTunes playlists, then constructs a custom RSS feed alerting you to when your favorite bands are coming to town -- in plenty of time to buy tickets.

It also does a bunch of other intelligent things, such as populates your calendar with shows and events you might be interested in, and recommends activities based on your interests.

What intrigues me about all this is what is suggests for the future. Imagine this sort of software, but will additional development that would enable it to monitor not just iTunes, but everything on your system -- and find not just concerts but any sort of event. Combine that with existing collective intelligence engines (like Amazon.com, Digg, etc.) and existing learning mechanisms (like StumbleUpon, etc.) and you would have an artificial intelligence concierge that would scan the Internet, doing your bidding, finding articles, telling you about things you're interested in and always learning about what you want and don't want.

I predict it's coming -- not in a decade but within a year or two. All the technology exists. All it will take is for some enterprising group to put it all together.