12 predictions for the next 12 years to celebrate 12 years of ShopTalk

The “Just Build Websites” podcast is celebrating its 12th birthday. Dave and Chris asked for predictions for the next 12 years of the World Wide Web.

1. Rollback of the cookie banners. Cookie banners are a mistake, we all know it, and we’ll do the right thing in the future.
2. New approach to accessibility. Counting on individual organizations and developers to ensure WWW accessibility hasn’t worked for the last 12+ years. We can’t spend the next 12 years doing the same thing and hoping for different results. I don’t believe I’m the only person who thinks this way. Someone will come up with a better approach to accessibility.
3. Better definition of user. The architecture of web apps will let people use the apps freely and require them to create accounts only when absolutely necessary (without losing data). And, no, investors won’t have anything against it.
4. Simpler data protection regulations. You won’t need a lawyer to ensure the security of your users’ data.
5. The return of the undo. Do you remember the Ctrl/Cmd+Z keyboard shortcut from desktop apps? You’ll be able to enjoy it in most of the web apps you use, too. Even outside of text fields.
6. No new passwords. We’ll free ourselves from the idea that passwords are secure—passkeys and hardware security keys will replace passwords.
7. Offline-first as the new default. Just imagine the speed of those web apps.
8. Rise of event sourcing. It will become much more common for developers to think about data as events instead of rows or documents.
9. Svelte won’t become the new React. And it’s going to be better that way.
10. Deno is going to replace Node.js
11. There will be more research labs like Ink & Switch
12. The Cloudfall or Solid will become mainstream

January 22, 2024

Tags: world, wide, web, www, forecast