Between 3D printers, phones that work underwater, glow in the dark highways, and flying cars, modern technology is becoming evermore mind-boggling. A large portion of the population now walks around with computers in their pockets that are way more powerful than the giant, super expensive computers from just a few decades back. Information is so incredibly easy to access, it can be overwhelming.

Yet, information is power, and the way we are accessing that power is certainly evolving. When thinking about the internet and developing or broadening a web presence as an organization, business or even as an individual, the real power comes in understanding how to be effective at both consuming and producing information. Understanding and identifying the latest trends in web technology puts you in a much better position both as consumer and producer of information. Here are five web technologies that are heavily influencing the web as we look toward the future:

• Speed  – Although, in our fast-paced society, it still seems that the internet is not fast enough. But, believe it or not, it is getting faster. With the intimate relationship that Google has with the web, they are doing their part to speed it up even more with Google Fiber. Yet, the topic of speed is not limited to broadband either—there are technologies like HTML5, JavaScript and jQuery, that are becoming more widely used for faster development, and allow for pages to be more dynamic with decreased need to refreshed as often, which means better user experience.

• Mobility – Web usage for most of us is on the go. If your site is not mobile and tablet friendly by now, you are missing a huge opportunity. Mobile is only going to continue to grow as a means of accessing the web.

• Interactivity – The way we access and interact with our data is becoming more intuitive and interesting. Touch enabled devices allow for different ways of manipulating and interacting with the web. Standards like HTML5 and CSS3 are making things more fluid, dynamic and animated, and pushing out older technologies like flash. These technologies, among others, are allowing for some fancy transitions and parallax scrolling effects.

• High Resolutions – High-definition or “HD” is now kind of considered the new standard definition. With Apple’s introduction of Retina displays on devices that sport PPI densities well over 200, other competing manufacturers of laptops, tablets and smartphones already have or will continue to follow suit. These higher resolutions need to be taken into consideration when developing new sites or revamping old ones, and will soon likely take the place as the new standard.

• Responsive – We have preached a lot about responsive design in the past, but it deserves being mentioned again because it is not going away. Even though mobile web access is on the rise, this doesn’t mean that desktops are going to be obsolete. Sites will continue to be served up on a growing number of screen sizes and responsive design is proving to be one of the best solutions to this dilemma.

The mind-blogging isn’t going to stop anytime soon. So continue to be fascinated by all that technology brings us, just be sure to stay fascinated and aware when it comes to web technology. This way, when something as crazy as Google Glass hits, you and your business will be ready.