In over a decade working on the web I don’t recall a single time where I used what was on my screen to influence a sale or even to really show to a friend. Sure we forward on messages for someone to see later but the actual idea of calling people over to see what you see just isn’t practical for a quick glance or ‘cool’ message.

The iPad changed that for me in less than a day. An interesting email caught my eye and I shared it with a marketing co-worker. She looked at the creative but was pulled in by the product, handed back my iPad and went online to make a purchase.

This is revolutionary.

While the iPad has been widely talked about for its ease of use, it’s quick access to the web, apps and other interface and usability features, the real game changer that I see it bringing is in sharing content. Let’s face it, few people take the time to zoom their iPhone in to a page to hand off or unplug a laptop to pass across the room. Where the personal computer is, well, personal the iPad is an open screen. This makes it ideal for collaboration – simple items are quickly passed along and whether that’s to show a new game, results from a project, or an email with an interesting product, it works.

If the experts are right and the iPad brings in a world of tablet computing (I for one see it happening) we can expect to see the term ‘social’ take on a whole new meaning as people share content in ways we may not have considered before. For web marketers this represents a whole new school of thought, design and even offers as we move to a world where what one person gets, others will often be shown. And how do you measure that?