This article was taken from the September 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Last year, for the first time, the world wide web hit a breakpoint and started to contract. In the US, the time spent on the web declined year-on-year from 72 minutes per day in 2011 to 70 minutes in 2012. That may seem like a small reduction, but compared to its speed of growth, this is like a supersonic train stopping dead and reversing course.
The web has long been the utility tool of the internet. It provides a user interface, a map, a compass. But it is being replaced by something even more functional: the app. According to data from comScore and Alexa, the average iPhone user in America spent 127 minutes a day using apps in 2012 (up from 94 minutes in 2011); numbers for Android users are comparable. That's already nearly double the time the average American currently spends on the web. As apps grow in popularity, the web's descent will only become more rapid.
One reason we're using apps instead of the web is that we are mobile. The other reason is even more important: we're suffering from information overload. Despite all the talk of " big data", too much of it is hard to digest. The brain evolved in a world of limited information; abundance causes havoc. There is simply too much on the internet and, although the web excels at finding information, it does a poor job of filtering it.
The brain is not a single device: it has many parts that perform single functions. Scientists call this modularity and it allows us to do many things at once. Like the brain, apps perform one specific task without bombarding the user with unrelated data. Apps match the ways our brains work, so they are more useful than the oversized web.
In an era of information overload, search is less valuable than
filtering. The early web helped organise things, and search became an essential function. But filtering is done best through apps. With unlimited information, there is a greater need to filter out irrelevant information and go directly to what you need, download the app, and never search again. A weather app is not only more convenient than waiting for the news, it's also more convenient than going to weather.com.
Imagine if you had to choose between giving up your apps or your browser. It's a no-brainer for me; my personal collection of apps is far more useful to me than the web. As tablets and phones replace computers, the web will be relegated to a position no higher than that of a "super app".
Even mobile websites have become more like apps than a part of the web -- they are often simpler, curated versions of the real thing. Clearly, mobile sites must be small in order to accommodate the size of a mobile phone. But that's only one side of the story.
Mobile sites are small because there is more value, more utility, in offering less in the information age.
The web has hit its breakpoint under the weight of having too much of a good thing. The newer, nimbler mobile net is cutting through the clutter in the same way that search engines cut through the clutter of the early web. Combined with apps, this transformation is making the internet a far more useful place.
Jeff Stibel is the author of Breakpoint: Why the Web will Implode, Search will be Obsolete, and Everything Else you Need to Know about Technology is in Your Brain (Palgrave Macmillan), and CEO of The Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
