It was only but a few years back when you had to physically possess entertainment in order to interact with and enjoy it. You may have went to Blockbuster to rent movies. You might have had a Netflix subscription. You might have bought your music at Newbury Comics. But it always was in your hand and inserted into some kind of equipment in order to make it work. Those days are going away faster and sooner than you think.

Already Netflix via the mail seems archaic to me, despite my talking it up to no end as recently as 2006. Now you can just get Netflix movies through your internet pipe or your AppleTV. Apple itself stomped a mud hole in the music business’ heart and that business will never be the same (thankfully). Shit, even books don’t need to be physically bought anymore, although I still do feel like downloading a book is crossing some sort of fundamental line for me. I keep telling Steph I’d love to have a Kindle because I think I’d be a more productive reader, but I’m truly afraid of what would happen to my soul if I stop reading physical books. That very well be an age thing.

Anyway, I’m a willing participant in the whole “music/movies in the cloud” but the hardest part about it for me is finding stuff. It is a royal pain in the ass to find a movie via AppleTV or whatever you’re using. Don’t get me wrong, it can be done, but all the on-screen interfaces I’ve seen for finding entertainment via your TV is are stuck in the stone ages. What about that other form of entertainment – radio in your car? Ford is doing some very interesting stuff with Microsoft, but other than that all is quiet on the western front. Of course, the car companies have other stuff to worry about, like keeping the lights on.

What has made the internet so appealing? Duh – search. Google didnt’ invent it, by the way, they just made it simpler and more addicting. Before that, there were plenty of internet search options. To apply the comparison, we’re still in the pre-Google era for finding information via your TV set and we’re still in the stone age in your vehicle. Someone or some entity is going to come along and completely turn it upside down. THAT is what will fuel mass adoption of entertainment via the cloud – a tool that will glue it all together the same way that search has glued the internet together. I’m dying to see the evolution!