The critical mass of technology

Wired lists 6 key technologies that have truly arrived or are indeed arriving that will be part of the continual process of transformation of our networked society

These are

Identity Management

Few things carry more value than your digital identity, and yet most web users have only a tenuous grasp of it. That's because on the social web, identity is no longer just who you are. It's who you know, how you know them and how much you want them to know about you. On the web, your identity is explicitly tied to your relationships, both with your friends and with the websites you visit.

Three great technologies came to fruition this year to help you manage these complex interdependencies: OpenID, Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect.

HTML 5

One of the most important technologies on this list doesn't fully exist yet — HTML 5 — but in 2008, key features started to trickle out.

Lifestreaming

Sites like FriendFeed, Plaxo Pulse and Digsby serve as social-network-activity aggregators. They're like virtual funnels. Dump in all the notifications, feeds and updates from your various networks, and the services will bring it all into one master stream, relieving you of the responsibility of visiting a dozen or more sites to learn what your friends are up to, what they're listening to, who they're snogging and so on. Controls let you dial back the flow by sorting and filtering the flow, pruning it down to only what matters most.

Firefox 3

One of the most highly anticipated software releases of the year, more than 8 million people downloaded Firefox 3 on the first day.

Google Chrome

Google's browser was instantly recognized as a potential game-changer, both among browser-makers and within the world of web apps.

Chrome is a browser built to empower web applications.

 

Location Awareness

In 2008, location-based information ceased being a fancy add-on and instead became a requirement of any serious, successful web service.

Hit a button on your laptop or phone to tell a web service where you are, and it tells you what restaurants are close by, where the new Bond movie is playing (and when, and if there are tickets left), and which of your friends are within shouting distance if you need a date.