Soon Online Dialogue is going to pay more attention to trends in our field, also in the form of event. What is happening in our field? What is the future going to offer us and how do we make sure we are ready for it when it comes? Our trends expert Maurice Beerthuyzen shares some trends in advance.

Facebook and Google are powerful parties. They increasingly determine what happens. And as a consumer or business, you just have to comply with that.

What's going on?

The long live freedom is over on the Internet. Increasingly, powerful players such as Google and Facebook set the rules. For example, on Facebook, as a city, you are not allowed to create a page. Munich was already taken to task. Also refused Facebook to cooperate in an investigation of Andreas Breivik's Facebook account.

On the other hand, it wants Google can eavesdrop on your phone and involves companies that Ban too much SEO. Twitter, meanwhile, bravely joins in by announce restrictive measures for developers.

What does that mean for me?

As a client, as well as a company that owns a page on Facebook, Google or Twitter, you face a dilemma. Do I go along with the conditions of the social network or do I refuse? If you go along, you submit to the whims of the social networks, but if you withdraw, you are suddenly completely untraceable at Google or, in the case of Facebook, you miss out on a huge network.

The parties are making their power felt, and that evokes reactions. For example, in response to the stringent developer policy at Twitter, a new network has now been launched: App.net. The funding was done by individuals. In fact, you pay $50 to gain access to the network. Developers pay $100, but in return they get the freedom to develop apps, which they can do on App.net then do so en masse.

Will we have true social networks in the future? Networks where we are all equal and all shareholders? Or is that a utopia? However, due to the strict measures of the establishment, more ‘civic initiatives’ are to be expected in this area.

Originally posted on October 4, 2012 at Trimmed.com