The future is full of mystery, but some people can predict what will happen when they follow the trends. Some say that the web will become too overcrowded that legitimate information become scarce, while others say that people will turn to the internet whenever they want to do anything.
What does the future holds is everyone's responsibility, and when information is never enough, personalization and context are what will enhance the Digital Age.
At its earliest stage, the internet opened a land of boundless opportunities. When it expanded, it grew into a crowded land where its occupants fight to survive. The limitless nature of the internet has ceased to excite people, and it become intimidating in a meaningful way.
On the internet, most people are still active in searching for information by relentlessly discovering new things as they browse. But as more information are created and meant to be seen, people are also become the recipient of information. Notifications, alerts, push data. All kept us informed and productive.
But is that what we actually want?
Digitally Overwhelmed
Technology has advanced into more places. With so many consumer devices, all connected to the internet, the technology that was once empowering people, has become overwhelming. Products that were once a shortcut to many things in life, have become a major distraction.
According to an announced data from Microsoft, 63 percent of consumers are "interested in future technology that automatically filters content or messages so they only see or hear what they need to at any one time."
The moment is created as a part of people's sense of frustration. Despite the amount of personal information that people supply to online companies, technology is giving people more information they can handle.
People are expecting online companies to deliver contents to them according to their needs, habits, behavior and tastes. But Microsoft's study revealed that only 39 percent of people are open in sharing their data with brands, just to get better experience.
This has come into one conclusion: too much is not good, and less means more. People don't just want to see endless stream of information and aimless marketing messages. But fewer and more targeted messages are what they want in order to have a relevant experience they can enjoy.
To create a targeted content, context comes into matter. People need brands to understand them, they want businesses to know when they want to be engaged, where, and how.
Personalization for Individuals
When people are bombarded with endless information, they can't process what they see. The things that they want to hear are drowned among the pool of other information that they deem useless, making them unable to get what they actually want.
Personalization can be an answer to this situation.
By personalizing different contents to different individuals, brands can expect an increased in conversion rates. This is because targeted content delivers information in time when the consumers are expecting them the most.
Understanding who their consumers are, the context, and platform, time, location, etc., can make brands provide better experience by delivering information that syncs with consumers. The more specific the message, the more relevant the resulting experience, the more open consumers have the change to take actions, and the better each content can convert.
Transparency of Data
Customization for better experience is what brands need to create. By looking at large companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft, they are continuing to innovate through data and data sharing across first- and third-party resources.
By having their own personalization options, consumers can expect to have a better experience, and brands can have a deeper consumer insights.
To kick-start personalization, brands need to collect as much information they can about their consumers. While a deep understanding of their consumers is essential, consumers are expecting brands to be completely transparent about data collection.
As targeted contents become the increasingly popular residents of the World Wide Web, consumers are expecting brands and advertisers to ask for permission before digital information is used.
Filtering the Endless Information
Information does good. But not all information can be digested at a single time. Another thing that consumers are expecting is the control of the flow.
As the internet becomes larger, more people are pouring more information to it, making legitimate data more difficult to find. As these information are abundance, consumers do have the power to sort them out, but they still want brands to do the hard work for them.
Companies that offer ways to filter out the irrelevant data are winning in this category. Tech companies are using their intelligent algorithms, Artificial Intelligent with machine learning power, contextual content serving and more, in order to solve this problem.
As machine learning and anticipatory technology are getting more bigger role as more endless information need to be filtered, brands that are giving consumers the "knife" to slice through the thick clutter of data, are guiding consumers in their own decision making.
Conclusion
Information is what people seek on the internet. At its youngest age, the internet gave people the power of communication they never had before. But as it became popular, the power of communication has become a norm, and people are becoming overwhelmed by all those information.
As people are expecting technology to aid them better, the future of the web where endless information kept piling, is intelligent contents.
Brands are expected to understand their consumers individually, and can deliver tailored content at the right place, at the right time, and on the right platform. Those that are capable of bringing the right content from the internet to the consumers while intelligently avoiding information overload, are the ones that will win the competition before it started.