'What's your handle?' to replace 'What's your number?'

Computerworld - Forget phone numbers and email addresses. The era of the Internet handle is emerging.

Instead of having to remember a phone number or an email address, in a few short years we might simply find somebody remotely over the Internet via his or her handle, another word for an Internet nickname.

It would be similar to the way handles are used in instant messaging or Skype, except that the handle would apply to all modes of getting in touch, including a phone number or email address (or several of each). In my case, my Skype handle, "MattaboyBoston," could become the way you would reach me.

"People will no longer seek each other's phone numbers or email address[es] when establishing personal or working relationships," wrote Gartner analyst Adib Ghubril in a report on mobile predictions for 2012 and beyond. "Instead, they will ask each other, 'What's your handle?' "

Ghubril said that handles will have a huge advantage. They could remain unchanged for a long time, if not for life.

However, to use the handle format, everyone will need a personal Web page that can be reached via a person's Internet handle. On that Web page, the user would store personal phone numbers and email addresses and keep them up to date. All of those phone numbers and addresses would be unseen by outsiders who would have the user's handle stored in their own contacts directory, Ghubril said.

For businesses, a contact manager application could be designed for a workplace or organization. These apps would manage a directory of Internet handles that would read Web-based or cloud-based information about the one being contacted. It would also provide rules for communications (such as not calling at certain times).

Application developers would need to build new contact manager apps to allow directories in smartphones and tablets to synchronize with remote social networking sites to allow the broader exchange of Internet handles, Ghubril said.

Ghubril said the emergence of Internet handles is "not that far off." He predicted that by 2016, 20% of cell phone numbers will be displaced by Internet handles. His prediction is fueled by the fact that smartphones and other wireless devices are exploding in use, with a greater dependency on messaging and applications such as video chat than on traditional voice communications.

Ghubril said social networks are already making Internet handles more of a necessity, since users already go to networks such as LinkedIn to find other people's photos and contact information. "What I see [the handles connecting to] is a kind of LinkedIn connected with video chat," he said.