Is it too soon or precocious to talk about Web 3.0?  If your answer to that is “yes,” please forgive me (and keep reading anyway).

I purposed to write a blog about my prediction of where the web is going back in July 09, three months ago.  Yesterday’s discovery of Google’s immanent sidewiki made me realize I better hurry up and say this before I no longer have the opportunity to position myself as a wise sage, prophet of the web.  (By the way, aspiring to “sage” status is one way I’ve warmed up to middle age despite aching joints, expanding waistline and scheduled colonoscopies on a calendar I could keep in my head in my 20’s).

“Blurred lines” is where I see it going. (But first a little background from my perspective). Back when, there was the company website(s) and all things web that were controllable by the company and its people.  Then there was the Social Media websites where the masses could talk about the company, its people, its product and its service.  Everybody could post, rate, review and rant on social media spaces, or if mad enough – make their own thisbrandsucks.com and invite others to join in the hate-chime.

Some companies quickly embraced their new found loss of brand control by creatively and authentically participating.  Others put their head in the sand, believing they could opt out of social media’s impact.  Still others hired a young intern and put “social media” on the newly made employee cubicle (we like to call this a social media silo because it makes us feel clever – and gives us an opportunity to explain that at least 5 completely different personality types and skill sets are needed to manage Internet marketing, which is why the newly hired intern needs outside resourcing – here, take a business card).

Brands now need to be “monitored” and “managed.”  Like Charlene Li brilliantly explains in Groundswell; companies need to be stewards of their brands.  The way I see it, effective brand efforts online now have a real names, real people with real personalities attached to them.  We have this new found surfing omnipresence, allowing us to listen to people that just checked out of the hotel we’re thinking of booking, read a review of a book we might download, or hear testimonials before we purchase that miracle weight loss vitamin.

But back to “blurred lines,” I believe that Web 3.0 will have less distinction between web pages that companies control and those that the masses control.  The user will have a more singular brand discovery that will blend the company’s voice with the voices of (hopefully) their online evangelists – or their agents of doom.  (Chris Brogan, here’s an idea for your next book).

We’re already seeing social media widgets appear more frequently on websites.  Companies are putting some muscle behind their use of Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn (to name a few).  But Google’s impending sidewiki will allow everyone to talk about you and your site – on your site – for everyone (with the sidewiki) to see.  I can see where this is going and if it catches on might not be pretty if you’ve been a slow adapter.  The masses just became more empowered.  Social is about to overpower your last bastion of internet control – your website.

Companies that are now creatively and effectively using social media strategies and are busy creating and relating to their online community of brand evangelists will be able to effectively transition to Web 3.0.  This is especially true if the masses are saying the same things about a company that matches the company’s carefully crafted message about itself.

For everyone else, things could get tricky.  But be sure on one thing.  Social media is a growing force that will need to be reckoned with.