CIOs: The Web's Golden Age Is Ending

As CIOs continue to evaluate business technology and plan for future investments, it is essential to accept the fact that the golden age of the Internet is ending. In the past decade, nearly all Internet access came from computers. Now new, incompatible devices are spreading by the millions — each with its own unique interactive format — and password protection on members-only sites like Facebook is walling off parts of the Web. For years, we've functioned under the expectation that no one controls the Web. But as the Web splinters into the new age of the "Splinternet," companies, not standards bodies, rule interactive elements. The days of standardized web-established links, click-throughs, and analytics are over. CIOs must re-evaluate their current web-based systems and help their CMO counterparts pursue these new incompatible formats to get closer to customers.