The web, even at this age, is still an ever developing landscape. New trends come and go, some of them will last, some won’t. This is a list of five we felt shaped this year, and probably will in 2008 also.
Politics Meets Social Media - The United States presidential elections are in November 2008, but there already seems to be an all out war online to win over voters.
Social Networks - Yes, you read that right… social networks. You still can’t throw a rock without the networks getting in to the mainstream news, people saying “I don’t email anymore; I Facebook”, or everyone still sending you invites to be their friend on this network or the other.
Citizen Movements - We’re not talking about the petition route where people start one up to bring back their favorite meerkat on Meerkat Manor, and then have no clue who to send it to. People are learning that you can indeed enact change online if you organize, remain respectful, and have clearly stated goals.
Ecommerce - Like social networks, people have been claiming you can’t make money on the web, but yet you see growth in both Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers this year that are hard to dispute. With the price for a barrel of oil steadily climbing, and no sales tax on most Internet sales in the United States, it is becoming increasingly seductive to do as much shopping online as possible.
Open Source - As more and more software projects move to the open source model, you have to wonder how long companies such as Microsoft will be able to keep going with their boxed software solutions.
Photo by larskflem.
Etavitom on December 26th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Thanks for the cool post! Most appreciated, Brad
Find A Social Network on December 26th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Hello!
We run a search engine specifically set up to help find and promote niche social networks, blogs and other social media.
There’s been a huge growth in niche social networking sites and this is set to continue thanks sites such as Ning et al.
The goal of Find A Social Network is to make it easier for users to find sites and communities related to their particular interests while helping niche sites grow their user base and monetize their web property.
Please feel free to register and submit your website to our database!
http://findasocialnetwork.com
SeoTrader on December 27th, 2007 at 5:37 am
In my opinion open source model is The most important trend on the Internet.
NetFusion on December 27th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Open source yes… I agree…
Just one question, in what year the “Social Network” sites have became so popular in USA and everywhere else?
Thank you!