The document discusses the history of emerging technologies and how to recognize the next big thing. It provides examples of technologies like word processors, the World Wide Web, search engines, and social networks that were initially novel innovations but later became mainstream. The document argues that true innovations are introduced by new players as entirely new experiences rather than features of existing platforms. It also claims the next big thing will be defined by how it improves human experiences rather than just technological capabilities. People should look for overloaded or inconvenient features that a new technology could enhance.

1. A Visual History of the Next Big Thing
...and how to see The Next One coming
Peter Sweeney
Founder & President, Primal

2. Source: John Kratz via Flickr

3. What is Vision?
Vision is being able to recognize a pattern and apply it to something
new, before others see it coming.

4. New Media as Features in Old Media
An incumbent player, when presented with a new innovation,
attempts to incorporate that innovation as a feature within their
existing user experience.
An emergent player introduces that innovation as an entirely new
medium, giving the innovation room to achieve its full potential, as
The Next Big Thing.

5. Digital Documents

6. Source: Wikipedia

7. Amstrad PCW8512word processor, 1988 (Source: Wikipedia)

8. The World Wide Web

9. Source: Wikipedia

10. The first WWW page, 1991 (Source: W3C, The World Wide Web Consortium)

11. Online Services

12. Main Menu USA (AOL 2.5 for Windows), 2003 (Source:
Mike Richardson)

13. Yahoo, original home page, 1994
(Source: CNET)

14. Search

15. Yahoo, original home page, 1994
(Source: CNET)

16. Google, 1999 (Source:Google Blogoscoped)

17. Social Networks

18. BlueRodeo.com, June 7, 2000 (Source: Internet Archive)

19. Myspace, June/04 (Wayback); launched in Aug. 2003

20. Microblogging and Activity Streams

21. Facebook, 2006 (Source:Mashable via Jon Loomer)

22. Twitter, 2009 (Source:iCrossing)

23. The Next Big Thing?

24. Interest Networks

25. Twitter, 2014

26. Primal, 2014

27. Cognitive Services

28. Google, 2013

29. Wolfram Alpha, 2013

30. Intelligent Virtual Assistants

32. Primal, intelligent content assistant

33. IFTTT Recipes (Source:Marcello Pedra)

34. How To Recognize The Next Big Thing?
New media invariably dominates old media, regardless of how hard
the incumbents try to keep new media down.
The essence of The Next Big thing won’t be technological. Cloud, data,
augmented, geo, semantic, mobile, distributed, implicit,
programmable networks are statements of technological enablers,
not human experiences.
Look at the activities and experiences of features that seem
overburdened or excessively inconvenient.

35. Further Reading
Medium: A Visual History of the Next Big
Thinghttps://medium.com/@petersweeney/a-visual-history-of-the-next-big-thing-a40c5f30cde8
The next step for intelligent virtual assistants: It’s time to
consolidatehttps://gigaom.com/2014/09/01/the-next-step-for-intelligent-virtual-assistants-its-time-to-consolidate/
2013: The Year 'the Stream' Crestedhttp://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/2013-the-year-the-stream-
crested/282202/
Why Cognition-as-a-Service is the next operating system
battlefieldhttp://gigaom.com/2013/12/07/why-cognition-as-a-service-is-the-next-operating-system-battlefield/
Sentient code: An inside look at Stephen Wolfram's utterly new, insanely
ambitious computational paradigmhttp://venturebeat.com/2013/11/29/sentient-code-an-inside-look-at-stephen-wolframs-
utterly-new-insanely-ambitious-computational-paradigm/
Antisocial Networking: How Small (and Valuable) Can Social Networks
Get?http://blog.primal.com/antisocial-networking-how-small-and-valuable-can-social-networks-get/