At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009 Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google inc. set out his vision of what the Internet will look like in five years time.

These are the top 6 predictions as summarised by ReadWriteWeb:

1. Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
2. Computers will be 10 times faster, able to hold 10 times as much data, and carry out much more complex tasks, following the rules set out by Moore’s law.

3. Most broadband speeds will be well over 100MB, which will blur the distinction between different distribution channels such as web, TV and radio.

4. “Web content will move significantly towards more video and Schmidt admitted that “We’re starting to make significant money off of YouTube”. That’s news then!

5. “Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information; we want it included in our search results.” “We can index real-time info now - but how do we rank it?”

6. It’s because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that “is the great challenge of the age.” Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.

Schmidt also said that it was important for business owners and marketers stayed in touch with how young people interact with different media channels. Such was the pace of change in media consumption that it was important to stay ahead of the curve.

“Talk to a teenager about how they consume media and remember in five years they’ll be your employee,” he said

So, a version of the Internet where social media and Chinese language content dominates, all delivered over super-fast broadband? Let’s see what happens!