What Now? Consumption Habits?

2. What are MY content consumption habits, at that point?

Not sure. I'm guessing that I'll still rely on blogs a great deal. I like the idea of blogging and there is a plethora of legit bloggers producing really excellent work. I have no reason to think that blogs will suddenly cease to interest me. Cover your eyes and ears blog-haters but maybe blogs are going to be the newspapers of my generation? They're not going anywhere anytime soon.

I'm ok with being entirely online. With the advent of internet TV, both in original and syndicated content, I'm wondering if everything won't come from the 'net? Windows 7 is heavily emphasizing home networks as something even the most tech-handicapped (this was found on the Official WindowsVideos channel) can create/use/maximize them. Now, we can link together our computer, gaming system, Blu-Ray player, television and stereo into one large network, streaming video and audio both ways to every device in our house, with all of the content coming from the net. Cable TV should be bracing themselves for a big change.

In undergrad, having not the money to subscribe, the time or energy to walk across campus to my tiny mailbox to pick up a stack of paper with day-old-news, I made the jump to an almost all-online news consumption habit a few years ago. I can't remember the last time I sat down with a mainstream paper to read about the news. In the past couple of years, almost all of my news consumption is online as even the slowest newspapers have finally begun to realize that this internet thing may be for real and as a result, have digitized their content for internet reading. While I can enjoy and sympathize with the nostalgia for the good ol' days of newsprint, I'm not sure its continued existence is as important as some of the Armageddon forecasters seem to think it is. Journalism will be ok without newspapers: there are enough journalists that care deeply enough about their craft and jobs that they'll figure out a way to make it work and even the most skeptical folks will come around eventually.

I am guessing that I'll be using mobile devices a great deal more to consume my news. As smartphones continue to evolve and tablets become more prominent, mobile users will be in heaven. You'll be able to consume your news wherever you go. Even now, you can watch live sports on the go with the correct subscription. This idea of mobile content is where we're headed. It's nice to sit at your computer watching streaming video. It'll be cooler to do it while walking down the street.

Mobile Options

I was thinking that either an app or mobile site would be a must, although I lean more in the direction of a mobile site. Most phones are still without Flash support for their browsers, although it is supposedly coming to the Mobile Windows, Android, etc. based phones (Pre, Blackberry) but not the iPhone, which has posited Apple as the fastest growing company in terms of market share in the mobile phone industry. The lack of Flash support renders an increasing number of websites nearly unusable, formatting aside. While we discussed that its possible to scale and scroll through a site, it's undeniable that a website designed for viewing on a larger screen has a dramatically different experience on a mobile device without a mobile option.

Take ESPN.com, which according to Alexa, is the 61st most visited site worldwide, 16th in the US. ESPN's site is loaded with Flash video and without the mobile option, it loses much of its appeal. However, that mobile option streamlines the site significantly without removing much content. It's formatted for a smartphone's screen, not a lap or desktop's. As more and more people buy into the smartphone idea (7m iPhones were sold in 3Q 2009 alone), we need to somehow acknowledge and cater to this growing segment. While the browsers on these devices are becoming increasingly powerful and are less of a limitation, the size of the device and more specifically, it's screen is. Links are unusable without sizing and scrolling and only the most dexterous of users can click on a small hyperlink without a zoom. The mobile option (or app) eliminates the step of zooming, scrolling, etc. While it may only be my own laziness, I much prefer visiting sites with mobile options than ones without.

Almost every major site on the web has one. I'm thinking we should have that option as well if the user so desires it.