Early this month Fred Wilson wrote about the three big megatrends in the web/tech sector: mobile, social and real-time.  These, he states, constitute The Golden Triangle.

You can build interesting businesses in each of these three sectors. The iPhone is the poster child of mobile. Facebook is the poster child of social. Twitter is the poster child of real-time.

But it is what happens inside the golden triangle that is really interesting to me. What if you build a service that is mobile, social, and real-time? Well that’s a big opportunity folks and I’ve been seeing quite a few entrepreneurs doing exactly that. It is an exciting time.

Yesterday, Jon Steinberg proposed a “Remixed” golden triangle where “local” acts as a substitution for real-time.  It’s an interesting idea and deserves further thought, particularly as it relates to city-oriented applications.  I think both Fred and Jon’s points are valid; however, I don’t think future web apps need to be confined to a triangle.

Why not add a vertex make it a square?  A combination of mobile, social, real-time, and local.  Some people claim that mobile + social + real-time = local, but that seems a bit contrived/forced to me.  I believe that all four elements can and will play a critical role in the development and success of applications.  The best platforms will leverage all of these trends.  These can manifest in the form of AR or informational and interactive applications.  Either way, there are many questions that need to be answered and important problems that need to be solved.  I think the best way to fill these voids is with a combination of mobile, social, real-time, and local.