While our economy shrinks Internet expands almost to infinity.
Two core elements of the global internet infrastructure have been “upgraded” during last few weeks, “signum temporis” as the Romans would say. Internet is no longer “new”! Last Month we officially ended its adolescence and opened gateway to exponential and potential infinite growth along with new resources.
IPv6
This gives us far more IP addresses than there are stars in the Universe. It is big step from 4.3 bn IP addresses we had available up to June 2012. Some developers will suffer as it was very easy for them to remember and recognise their own infrastructure using IPv4 system. Now is all about to change
IPv6 Example:
21DA:D3:0:2F3B:2AA:FF:FE28:9C5A
IPv4 Example
192.1.5.265
What IPv6 does it mean for average person?
a) You can have more IP addresses for yourself then you can imagine. All your devices can be combined in to one private network. Cloud hosting can become obsolete and peer-to-peer networks will start to take over private internet structure. Your fridge, phone, tv, dishwasher, heating system or any internet capable device will contain all information about us and will be able to broadcast and receive all necessary data to make our lives easier and safer too (there will be divided opinions here) .
This is possible “typical evening digital conversation”:
Mobile: (in your pocket) end of the day micro elements analysis and fat burning analysis
Mobile to Fridge: status report sent
Fridge to Mobile: Possible diner for today – poached salmon with new potatoes
Mobile to you: agree/disagree
You to Mobile: (let say) Agree
Mobile to Fridge: correct
Fridge to Dishwasher:…..
and so on 
b) At some point there will be proposition for each of us to have own static addresses on all possible home devices (from mobile to your fridge) – police or other organisations will be able to trace us better. How about health monitoring of your everyday shopping? Fridge could send report to your GP “you have too much sugar in your diet”. Very close to implementation of this type of monitoring are insurance companies. Automated warnings “you are driving 40mph in 30mph zone your comprehensive cover is now invalid …..
Dream come true or should we heed Orwell’s warning from 1984? Whichever it is it doesn’t matter it is closer to implementation then ever before! All thanks to IPv6.
c) Similar to the Higgs Boson Particle we do not really know how many great or bad things awaits us because of IPv6. This system opens yet unexplored for Internet users and infrastructure creators possibilities.
.anything Domain Names
Great news for all brand holders and big companies with no .com domains in their portfolio. They can have now domain like shoes.adidas or vests.adidas. Of course price point US$185000 for application makes it only available for corporate customers but there will be moment this will be available for much less in few years time for all of us. It is fascinating from search marketing point of view too. We know Google always mentioned a lot about “canonical” tag for domains. With Google buying domains like .youtube and .google we have clear indication .com supremacy as global domain will be challenged by new gTLD “corporate” level domain names. After all people who are able to pay US$185K for domain must be the most valuable Google customers too.
What .anything means for the average person?
a) You will buy your groceries from TESCO whether you do it online or offline. www is almost obsolete now is time for .com to go. You will type shop.tesco and you will be taken to Tesco online shop. In many cases your search phrases will mean exact address of the website you are looking for.
b) In couple of years time when prices are down there will be fashionable to give a .anything domain as a b’day present. Of course it will happen so you can type fridge.kurzydlo (author’s surname) on your mobile.kurzydlo and you will be able to pick up menu for tonight!
What about this “Penguin”?
A bigger Internet means more spam. Coincidence on this front comes from release of the biggest anti-spam algorithm Google has ever released! It is fearless - Penguin. It is worth watching its behavior as it treats irrelevant links pretty nastily. There are people in the industry who still believe there’s no such thing as bad links – ask them about Google Penguin update!
What “Penguin” means for average Joe?
a) A waterbird which can’t fly 
b) There will be less spam on blogs, forums and other social media related areas
c) There will be more relevant results on Google. Relevant – means well established companies with a lot of AdWords budget
We hope for more exciting news like these in the second part of 2012 – we are changing world’s future without even realising it!
Enjoy your holidays!
[KK]
