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Industry Landscape
The web standards industry is continuously evolving, driven by the need for interoperability, accessibility, and structured data. While major bodies like W3C continue to set broad standards, community-driven initiatives like GMPG play a crucial role in fostering niche, human-centric protocols. The rise of AI and new web technologies puts pressure on these standards to adapt, ensuring a future-proof, interconnected web.
Total Assets Under Management (AUM)
Number of Websites in United States
~Over 1.1 billion websites worldwide (Netcraft, 2024). Approximately 200 million active websites.
(Not directly applicable for number of websites, but web adoption and usage is growing. CAGR)
Global website growth is dynamic. New registrations drive growth. Older sites may become inactive. Overall internet penetration impacts the metric.
Total Addressable Market
250 billion USD
Market Growth Stage
Pace of Market Growth
Emerging Technologies
Decentralized Web Technologies (Web3)
Technologies like blockchain and IPFS are enabling a more decentralized internet, shifting data ownership and control back to users and potentially influencing how web content is stored and linked.
AI-driven Content Generation & Semantic Analysis
Advanced AI models can create and understand content with greater semantic depth, potentially making current manual semantic markup less critical or enabling automated generation of highly structured data.
Knowledge Graphs & Linked Data
The increasing adoption of sophisticated knowledge graphs and linked data initiatives aims to connect diverse data sources, making explicit semantic relationships more pervasive and machine-readable across the web.
Impactful Policy Frameworks
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (2018/2020)
The CCPA grants California consumers new rights regarding the collection and sale of their personal information by businesses, including the right to know, delete, and opt-out.
It requires web authors and platforms to be more transparent about data collection and usage, potentially affecting how relationship data is handled and displayed.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Web Accessibility Guidelines (Ongoing Enforcement)
While not a specific new law, the ADA's principles are increasingly being applied to websites, requiring them to be accessible to individuals with disabilities, often aligning with WCAG 2.1 standards.
This pushes web developers to create more structured and semantically rich content for assistive technologies, potentially increasing the relevance of well-defined metadata.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Endorsement Guides (2009, updated 2023)
These guides address how endorsements and testimonials, including online reviews and influencer marketing, must be disclosed to prevent deceptive practices.
While indirect, it influences how online relationships are disclosed, potentially impacting how 'friend' or 'contact' links (like XFN) might be interpreted or need additional context if used for commercial purposes.
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