I wasn’t lobbying for Micropayments (I’d think it was unlikely to take off too, but I thought that the DIVX model was dead too, but lo-and-behold Apple’s recent semi-revival)…I guess if I was predicting thing, I’d look that those ideas that were around and important 7-10 years ago that looked like failures.

Chris

Chris, I’m already there (which is why the ads don’t usually bother me.) Frankly, I’m amazed that any place can support itself with ads, based on my buying habits. I always feel guilty when I buy something directly that I first saw advertised on another site, but I usually can’t find the ad on that site again.

Oh, and Scott’s micropayment idea won’t ever take off. Once you get down to ‘micro’ it’s an eensy step to free, which reduces overhead significantly. Best to use the free goods to leverage the non-free. As someone wisely noted, you can’t download a t-shirt.

Technicially, Jason if you don’t know its there, are you missing it? (I ask only because, well, there is so much out there that you can’t take it all in and, probably, you don’t want to try.)

As for my own prediction, in ten years I imagine that the internet will be even more taken for granted: ie, like we have the TV or radio on in the background, we’ll have the internet “on” in the background and, individually, decide when we are going to pay attention to it–sort of like when I watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on cable waiting for the good bits (oh that principal! He really didn’t like Ferris).

I’m wondering how many people feel the need to filter out ads. By and large it doesn’t bother me (there are exceptions, of course.) If the number of people who don’t really care is large enough, advertising won’t be affected too much.