The Web Gets Rich

One of the biggest trends on websites is rich everything: rich media, rich internet applications (RIAs) and rich participation. The original Web was always a prisoner of bandwidth and now that broadband is de rigueur, a richer sensory experience is possible—and some might argue mandatory—on the Internet. This includes video, sound, and applications such as Flash, AJAX and Java that add responsiveness, functionality, usefulness and interest to websites.

The rich participation is being added by the self-authored content of the Live Web as opposed to the Static Web. Doc Searls at the IT Garage explains:

On one side is the Static Web of sites that we architect and build and construct, at locations with addresses. On the other is the Live Web of pages that we write or author and publish and syndicate, and which can be browsed or subscribed to.

Live Web includes blogs, podcasts, photo sharing, video sharing and other activities that give the audience a chance to participate in the content as well as view it.

Not every site needs all of the above, but to be building a site without at least the architecture to support the new rich Web, would be guaranteeing near-future obsolescence.