I was going to write this last week but it looks like the concept might be coming up again given this article per Mozilla's new hire and the concept of smart agent.
Basically the idea is this: the web is moving towards becomes a better agent. It takes the concept of the web browser as "user-agent" and really becoming an agent that works for you much like a real estate agent, travel agent, concierge, financial adviser, etc. In order for this to happen though, there needs to be a deeper relationship, the agent needs to know you better in order to give better advice and ultimately act for you.
Early Realization
Google Now, Siri, Pandora's results matching, Amazon's recommendations are all early implementations in the realm of personal assistant. Motorola Assist is another example as it knows when you're driving, having a meeting, or going to sleep in order to make recommendations for you. The initial phase is gathering the information, finding out what people are doing, and then building services around those actions. When the agent can actually act for you, buy that product for you, book that flight for you, make the reservation for your wedding anniversary dinner at your favorite restaurant, that's when we might have something.
Evolving from…
Where is this evolving from? The concepts are "personalization" which we've seen with My Yahoo!, iGoogle, NetVibes; recommendation engines from services like Pandora, Amazon, and loads of other web sites; the notion of likes and having a "likes" database that could power better recommendations; avatars and the creation of mini-me type experiences on the web; if this then that type of services; identity, signing into a web browser and knowing history and bookmarks; and, web services in general that are talking to each other and they're letting us be our own real estate agents and travel agents. The next step is better recommendations, actual transactions, and then our interaction with our agent is maybe just the confirmation of the transaction.
For example…
tbd…and that's why the concept of a "real" agent is hard. But a real agency works when you have a deep relationship with your agent and he/she knows you. Can you take that to browsers, the web, and do you want Google, Apple, or somebody else developing the agent that's really going to work for you?
And ultimately, I'd love to be able to give my "agent" $1,000 and have it make me some money (should've bought some bitcoins)…