I’m basically a web developer, so I tend to see technology through this lens.

Which is natural.

But I put together my yearly list of prognostications recently, and it was mostly web stuff.

Which is natural.

But it got me thinking, and one of the trends I do see – that I didn’t mention – is that, for the first time in years, the internet is more important than the web.

Yes, I know the web (HTTP) is built on the internet (TCP/IP), but most of the action over the last decade has been to expand the web – a GUI/open API for the internet.

Yet, in 2008, so much action has moved to “internet-enabled [whatever]” that it leaves the web somewhat in the dust, to a degree not seen for years.

Examples:

• Twitter: Sure, web-based component, but also SMS.
• iPhone app store: Buy over the net on your phone; use same apps sometimes as web clients, sometimes not.
• Smartphone functionality in general: Yes, strong embedded web browser functionality, but just as often leveraging non-HTTP protocols. Example: Embedded app using SMTP to get/read email. NOT necessarily browser-based.
• Video/music delivery: Often purchased in web-based store (Amazon), often not (iTunes). Streaming video – movies and TV shows (not Hulu.com and YouTube.com videos) – app-, not necessarily web-based for delivery. Internet.

I dunno. I just found this interesting.