We’re living in amazing times. Ours is an era when making predictions about the hottest tech trends offer an embarrassment of riches for the coming year. There are so many cutting-edge developments — all of them hugely influential — that choosing just a handful to focus on is a challenge!
Nevertheless, here are some tech trends to watch for the rest of 2022:
The Maturing of Web 3.0
As you may remember, the first web pages were passive sites we logged onto for information. We could not interact with them. That was Web 1.0.
Next came fully interactive websites where we could leave comments, create our own content and do a host of other things. That is Web 2.0 and still the most common form we know today.
Web 3.0 is another evolution that is referred to as decentralized web. On Web 3.0 platforms, the creator can “mint” their own content, create unique online items (called NFTs or non fungible tokens), and sell their creations to others.
All of this leverages blockchain technology, which makes many kinds of new functions possible without going into complex detail here. It gives much greater “power” and control to individual website creators.
NFTs represent unique digital assets that can be marketed and sold with tokens showing ownership proof. To get an idea of how quickly NFT is growing, this market topped $25 billion in 2021. Some sources place that figure at $41 billion!
Whatever the case, decentralized Web 3.0 technology promises to be the hottest technology trend since the advent of eCommerce more than 30 years ago.
The Metaverse
Another tech trend on the radar screens of all investors is what is collectively known as “The Metaverse.” This is an online or digital environment that is a simulation we can all enter, such as by putting on a pair of VR goggles or helmets and immersing ourselves in cyberspace.
Facebook made big news recently when it redefined itself as “Meta.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pouring billions of dollars into developing what he hopes is the world’s dominant metaverse platform. However, Google, Apple, Amazon, and other tech behemoths aren’t about to cede the metaverse to Mr. Zuckerberg. We can expect these giants to compete hard at developing realistic and absorbing virtual reality universes that portend to change the very consciousness of the human race and its relationship with reality.