Dutch telecoms provider KPN introduced its service KPN OpWeg (KPN On the Road), a navigation service for mobile phones. The phone needs to have a GPS function, or make a connection with a GPS receiver (ab, Dutch). A virtual world is developing, which we can see through various screens and displays. Now we are still used to certain functions belonging to certain appliances (like phone, remote control, or TV). In the future we will be able to do everything through every screen. The only limit will be the size of the screen. But having spoken dialogues with brands will go through any display. Even through the display around our wrist (that now just shows the time) we will be perfectly able to do so. This is a small step in that direction.

Through RobotReplay brands can record and watch the way consumers move their mouse over their website (dc, Dutch). RobotReplay is an analyzing tool, but this principle uncovers a lot more opportunities. Like in a shop the (good) seller keeps an eye on the consumer's interest (at that moment) and takes advantage of that, brands will now do the same thing online. Earlier, brands did this by looking at what we clicked on, or what we bought. Now they look at how we move our mouse, and later brands will also consider what we say, what we look at, and what our hands reach for. This way the virtual world becomes more and more real, and brands start to understand us better and better.

Dutch character 'Meneer De Uil' (Mister Owl) soon will present De Fabeltjeskrant ('the fable newspaper') in 'Twents', a regional dialect. Regional broadcaster RTV Oost has already translated a couple of episodes in the regional dialect, and hundreds of episodes are to follow soon (bm, Dutch). Brands are starting to speak the consumer's language. And not just the general language: they will also start using the accents, and the specific individual word choices. Brands in this are assisted by technology that allows them to do this more and more. Brands this way learn to listen to the consumer as a psychologist, or as a senior account manager. Only automatized. This is a small step in that direction.

The European Commission has its own channel on video sharing site YouTube: EUTube. This channel provides videos about the most important issues for the residents in the European Union's 27 member countries, which are being addressed by the European Union. At the moment there are almost 50 video clips, covering various subjects: from historic pictures about the start of the European Union to contemporary concerns about environment, immigration, and the fight against global warming. Most of the content is in English, but there is room for French and German clips. Other languages will be added 'if possible' (ab, Dutch). This way European citizens get more involved with the European Union, their emotional barriers very slowly disappear, and Europe will start to feel like one country. A next step will be for Europe to ask its citizens to translate content. Or to provide content. Very, very slowly, in very small steps, everybody will feel like a world citizen in the future. But that will take at least another fifty to one hundred years.

Related trends

• More involved

American Social Network MySpace splits off its video sharing to MySpace TV. Its structure strongly resembles YouTube (dc, Dutch). This way coaching brands get more focus. Facilitating contact, the main focus of social coaching brands, is very different from entertaining people, the main focus of home entertainment coaching brands. This split-off makes it possible for both brands to really focus on their core activities.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Tokyo-based optical component maker Active Inc. has developed a new composite LCD display that allows a user to clearly see objects through the monitor's viewing surface (eg, tip Heini Withagen). We develop more and more screens as windows to see the world. This way, the world we see becomes clearer. From every object all details will automatically appear, we can zoom in on certain details and interact with them. And this is also true for objects developed by product brands. We will encounter these kinds of screens as windows in various places: in museums, as shop windows, or as a replacement for normal window glass. This is a small step in that direction.

Intel starts a technology blog in Chinese (rb). The globalization continues. In a few hundred years English, Spanish and Chinese will be the most important languages, and again a few hundred years later we end up with a mixture of all of these. Recognizing Chinese as an important world language is a small step in that direction.

The new Nokia E90 can read 2 dimensional, QR (Quick Recognition) bar codes. In this video clip the code on a business card is photographed, and the contact details are stored directly in the phone (mc, Dutch). In the future, every product will have a code with a URL which directly leads to the web site of the brand. Now through QR codes, later through RFID. It all becomes simpler. The product loses its anonymity and becomes the topic of conversation between brand and consumer. This is a small step in that direction.

Entertainment and movie brand MrMovie is now available through the mobile phone (mc, Dutch). He or she who wants to see the latest film news, see listings or find upcoming movies, can visit MrMovie's mobile pages. If in the future everybody has Messenger on their phones, we automatically connect to MrMovie's chat bot from the restaurant we're at, find what top movie they show in the neighboring cinema, and reserve directly. Then we finish our espresso and walk to the cinema. This is a small step in that direction.

Handyman site Werkspot asks customers, handymen, and home improvement stores to help them grow, by making them Werkspot Agents. Handymen can earn 25 euro by signing up another company or handyman, a store can place a special Werkspot display, and customers get the chance to earn a free subscription to a home improvement magazine. Besides, at the homepage a suggestion box is put in a prominent place. Brands involve consumers. The line between employees and consumers gets thinner. In the future, people together form the brand. This is an example of developments in that direction.

Telefoongids.nl recently has started its beta version of its own chat bot, named Finnu. Who adds msn@detelefoongids.nl to his contact list in Windows Live Messenger (still consequently called by its old name, MSN Messenger) can search for companies, services and people in a typed dialogue, and call them in one click. Telefoongids is the first guidebook in the Netherlands working with a chat bot (tc, Dutch). Brands have more and more dialogues with their customers. Now through a typed dialogue on the computer, more and more often through Instant Messaging on the mobile phone, and after that we will be able to talk to Finnu. If Telefoongids becomes a social coaching brand we will say: "Finnu..." "Hi Erwin!"; "call John for me please"; and John will be called. No matter if John is on our contact list, or has to be found somewhere else: that doesn't matter to the consumer. As long as he gets called. This is a small step in that direction.

At Robocup 2006 there were soccer playing robots, expressing human gestures. When they scored for example, they went down on their knees, put their arms up in the air, or turned around in circles. We try to imitate human life more and more. In text, in sound, in image and also in the physical world we find human equivalents. Earlier or later humanoids, robots looking like people, will be important members of the brand culture. They will be direct colleagues of the brand agents, their virtual colleagues. And oh yes, there will also be real human beings working for the brand. These clumsy looking experiments form a small step in that direction.

Video sharing site YouTube can now also be entered through mobile phones. At m.youtube.com a special menu is available (mc, Dutch). All brands automatically adapt their communication with the consumer to the size of the display. The information we can see on this small display will later be in line with our personal profile: what did our friends (or friends of friends) watch? If we then want to see a bigger image, we just have to keep our mobile phone close to a bigger display and transfer it with our fingers, and a real full-screen experience can start. Interactive, if we want. This is a small step in that direction.

Logitech introduces a remote control that not only controls appliances, but also reacts to our fingers. The device can operate all our audio and video appliances through a wireless extender, a machine that enables infra red rays to be sent from different rooms. This way we slowly get used to interactive displays in our living room. The next question will be why we can't select our music collection directly on this display. For lots of people this is still the next step, but it is already available.

Rabo Mobiel, the mobile division of Rabobank, has her virtual employee Lisa advise consumers what phone to choose. Lisa welcomes you in spoken language, and asks what you are looking for. Then the website user gets a menu of choices he or she can click on. Lisa then continues in spoken language. This way brand agents slowly evolve. Now still on a sub page, later prominently on the home page. Now just through the computer screen, in the future through the mobile phone, TV, TomTom, e-paper and every other possible display still to be developed. Now still in textual surroundings, but in the future we will see Lisa in a RaboMobiel specific surroundings. This way the dialogue slowly comes to life. This is a small step in that direction.

The amount of internet users in Brasil rises from 9% (17.5 million people) in 2005 to 22% (43.7 million) in 2011 (dc, Dutch). Around 2025 every human being in the world will be connected. From young to old. This will have much more impact than we think now. In the end we will have an understanding world. But that will then take at least another generation. A subject I will definitely write about in my next book.