Audio and video rooms, where people from all over the world can talk to and see each other, will sweep away chat rooms with their terse typing. Today's fledgling private TV stations will become not only legion, but will feature large, sharp, clear pictures without all the jerks and gaps of today's offerings. Videophone, promised since the 1960s, will finally become a reality as this high-quality and universal standard comes to the fore. With Your Avatar Information and communication will merge in innovative ways. We can see one example today in prototypes from Urbanpixel.
Users then move around the store by dragging their avatars hither and yon.
Users can see other users' avatars in the store hovering near the item they're looking at and can communicate with them regarding the item. Salespeople also cruise around the store, and users can stop them and ask a question, just as you would in real life. Extending this trend into the future, we can soon expect to be able to talk live with the other customers. A more immediate revolution is already underway. Today's browsers are, in many respects, cruder than the tools available in the 1970s.