I think that the past year, 2010, will be remembered in our industry as the year of the visual Internet. – Jim Crowe
About a year ago, Jim Crowe, our CEO, gave one of those supercool “Jim-like” proclamations about the state of the Internet. His declaration was that in 2010, the Internet had hit a watershed moment and had now truly become a “visual” platform – with users embracing and preferring rich media like never before.
Part demographic (younger people), part economic (cheaper bandwidth) and part technological (streaming/CDN improvements) – all these factors had morphed together into a macro-level seismic shift in how people would consume and share information over the information highway, from that moment forward.
As I’ve described in previous blog posts, the guy is pretty solid at predictions.
But in just the past few weeks, there have been four jaw-dropping signs that we have officially entered the era of the Visual Internet.
Sign #1: Facebook Photos and Instagram
Did you know that 10% of all photos ever taken have been taken in the past 12 months? Just think about that for a second. We’ve been taking photos since 1838!
The author and his son - Instagrammed!
The biggest reason why? Facebook, whose users upload around 250 million photos. Each day.
But not only has Facebook been hosting these photos, but they’ve been displaying them in increasingly visual ways over the past year:
- First boosting up individual photo resolutions
- Then doubling the size of photos in the newsfeed
- Finally, forcing users to change from Walls to the much more visual Timeline
Yesterday, Facebook took yet another massive embrace of the Visual Internet agreeing to purchase Instagram (the 12-person, zero revenue-generating, photo-sharing app company!) for a cool one billion dollars. Facebook understands that visuals drive engagement and will likely keep making photos a more integral part of their service.
Sign #2: The Rise of Pinterest
Last week, there was another announcement that shocked the world (okay, at least in my world of geeky social media professionals). Pinterest, a niche content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboards, had skyrocketed to become the 3rd largest social network in the U.S., surpassing sites like LinkedIn and Google+.
Pinterest is the ultimate Visual Internet experience, breathing new life into everything from cooking recipes to school supplies through the power of pictures. The unexpected surge in popularity has every social site and e-commerce business thinking about how to become more visual…and has my wife thinking about how to perfect her Carne Asada.
Sign #3: Draw Something
It’s one thing to simply take photos and upload them to the Internet. It’s another thing to draw them with your finger for your friends to guess what it is. Which is exactly what 50 million people have done 6 billion times (!) in Draw Something, the mobile app game that only launched about 2 months ago.
The tongue gave it away!
Draw Something is, you guessed it, extremely visual. But it’s a different experience than plowing through pinboards on Pinterest or clicking through photos on Facebook. It’s visual AND participatory. You are creating the art.
There’s a pride of ownership associated with Draw Something, a pride that some people are taking quite seriously
Sign #4: The Resolutionary New iPad
When Apple announces a new generation of iPhone or iPad, it’s now expected that there will be something completely game-changing as part of the announcement – Siri, Facetime, iCloud.
The latest game-changer for iPad this year? Pixels. As in a million more of them on their breakthrough retina display. Apple’s successful marketing push around the new iPad is simple – it’s your gateway to the Visual Internet. Customers seem to be on board – buying a record 3 million iPads in the first few days on sale.
The New Internet
While each is their own story, these four headlines are very much connected. Record breaking user adoption, increased web engagement, billion dollar valuations.
Start-ups and big companies alike are all striving to create the next Instagram, Pinterest or Draw Something. You want eyeballs? Then make something eye-appealing. Because we now live in the era of the Visual Internet and there’s no turning back.
Any other signs that you’ve been seeing? What new apps, websites and services are you using on the Visual Internet? Let us know in the comments!
About Stacey Sayer
