Our modern world doesn’t exist without the world wide web. When we first brought it into our lives logging onto desktop computers and accessing information was a fascinating thing. Searching for web pages on Yahoo! was a wild new frontier. 

But for as monumental as that Web 1.0 experience of the 90s was, the evolution of Web 2.0 changed our daily lives far more drastically. Now equipped with smartphones in our pockets, information and communicating with others were all more accessible than any other time in human existence. Today, users create content, interact with businesses and each other, work remotely, and remain plugged in through social media 24/7.

What about Web 3.0?

While hindsight grants us a clear picture of the jump from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and just how drastically it’s all impacted the world today, but nobody truly knows what the jump to Web 3.0 will look like, when exactly it will happen, and how quickly our lives will change again. Still, many agree this third evolution of the world wide web is inevitable as 5G becomes more widespread — a major building block of the Web 3.0 leap. And while still not as clearly defined, it’s believed there are five basic features that will define it:

1. The Semantic Web will have a more complex understanding of its content, differentiating between products, locations, behaviors, and so on, largely in part to…
2. Artificial Intelligence software will be able to differentiate between real and fake, or even understand intent, making new use of data.
3. 3D Graphics and Virtual Reality technologies will be more prominent, making today’s two-dimensional content seem obsolete.
4. Connectivity will evolve, with semantic metadata leveraging our information in ways meant to enhance user experiences.
5. Ubiquity will be a key feature, with all of our devices connected to the network and accessible to us everywhere. 

Where Web 3.0 Tech Exists Today

Some of these Web 3.0 characteristics sound wildly futuristic. At the same time, you can probably imagine many of them coming right around the corner. And that’s because some of those features are being reimagined and built at breakneck speeds in today’s tech market. Take Nextech AR, for example. 

The Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality market is expected to grow to $72.2B by 2024 in large part because of the global push toward Web 3.0. Nextech’s technology is a prime example of 3.0 tech that exists today, as well as how it will impact our daily lives. Currently, ARitize™is a tool the company has developed that is making AR and VR more than a novelty, leveraging 3D asset creation for wide scale use in the ecommerce sector. As more and more of our daily shopping is done online it’s estimated as much as $150B in revenue is lost to product returns. AR representations of products, however, have been shown to increase shopping cart conversions by 20% and reduce returns by up to 50%. While it may seem like a simple shift in our personal shopping experience — examining 3D renders instead of 2D images — the projected revenue savings are undoubtedly why companies like Amazon, Toyota and Lexus, Viacom, Johnson and Johnson, and others are leaning on Nextech to develop both the tech and the infrastructure that will be needed to make this facet of the eventual Web 3.0 ubiquitous. 

Web 3.0 and Transportation

Today, transportation services like Uber and Lyft are so widespread thanks to remote access to the web, a major factor in Web 2.0’s existence. Those services gave way to entirely new ways of getting around town, whether traveling to a new city, living day-to-day life without a car of your own, or simply getting from point a to point b on a weekend evening. The idea of ridesharing is also why we now see an evolution in micro mobility, making things like scooters, e-bikes, and motorbikes accessible through mobile apps for one-time use. 

Meanwhile, we can reimagine commuting in a Web 3.0 world in the same way. “Smart cities” of the future will rely on a drastically different infrastructure for transportation that’s connected to 5G for greater commuting efficiency and communication. Public transportation and parking will be accessible in new ways, while entire fleets of vehicles will transition from gas-dependent toward the universal adoption of electric vehicles. 

Why would we expect all this to happen? Because we can see companies hard at work to be ahead of all these changes. Ideanomics, for example, provides economic and operational support to companies undergoing EV fleet conversion today. Aside from helping clients acquire the vehicles needed for electrification, Ideanomics is also integral in developing the infrastructure that will support universal EV adoption. 

In January, for example, they acquired WAVE, a Utah-based company that specializes in wireless charging systems. Their technology incorporates the use of 5G and wireless charging pads in order to allow busses to meet or exceed their typical travel range without ever having to return to their depot. It’s a prime example of how Web 3.0 ubiquity will eventually shape even our daily travel. 

Powering Web 3.0

The advancement of semiconductor technology helped Silicon Valley bring us the mindblowing tech that created Web 1.0 and then catapulted us toward the more advanced Web 2.0 of today. Without them today, nothing works. We certainly don’t have smartphones or built-in navigating systems in our self-driving cars. 

While semiconductors may not necessarily get smaller than they are now, that doesn’t mean they can’t (or won’t) be capable of conducting more power in the future. Transphorm, Inc. is a manufacturer of semiconductors and pioneer in GaN power transistors for high-voltage power conversion applications. Their tech is exactly what will power us into a Web 3.0 world. 

Currently, Transphorm is targeting 5G RF and 5G smartphone power adapters among their more than 1,000 patents. That’s a lot of potential innovation waiting for a world that will become more reliant on 5G, create more data than ever each day, rely more heavily on electric vehicles, and still be connected to all of it through our own mobile devices. 

As mentioned, much of the technology that will make Web 3.0 possible exists in different corners of the tech market. Its five basic characteristics are either present today or very easy to conceive in the near future, making Web 3.0 not a question of if it’ll come our way, but when.