Future adventures in the Internet as operating system…

So, how long do you think it is before another OS displaces Microsoft Windows (2000, XP, Vista, what-have-you)? As if there weren’t increasing evidence, such as Apple’s (albeit modest) lift in market share, the key chink in the armor is the increasing utility of the Web displacing the traditional OS. Along those lines, Yahoo has now added aliases to its search mechanisms. They refer to the feature as Search Shortcuts, and it’s pretty cool, actually. Isn’t it interesting that the Web has gone from command line (think the days of Lynx and the like), to GUI (Mosaic, Netscape, IE, Firefox, etc.), and is heading back to command line again? What do you want to bet that if this catches on, Yahoo begins looking for ways to monetize this little bit of functionality, much like AOL does with its keywords? Software as services assumes that someone’s willing to pay for those services.

Just, whatever you do, don’t call it “Web 2.0.”