Nielsen predicts the Web's future on a regular basis and some of his predictions are available below. Looking at the Web's past is also instructive and the links on how the Web has changed provide a basis for future predictions. He also predicted correctly that the bandwidth problem would not be solved, micropayments would not appear, and that Internet Explorer would not become the only browser. He cites mobile access, Web standards, automated customer service, Web patents, and Y2K problems as the main stories for 1999. Newer surveys reveal that animations are annoying, applets should sometimes open their own window, frames are bad Web page design, and colored text and backgrounds should be used with care.
Users are more conservative than most page authors realize.
Users are slow to upgrade, upgrades are perceived as less compelling than in the past, and new users are less likely to be technically sophisticated than in the past.