Keep On Keepin’ On

2008. In my childhood that was a year of science fiction. Now it is upon us and though the Martians may not land in the car park it will definitely be another year of pushing back the boundaries and fun, fun, fun in the world of the Internet.

The figures for Christmas 2007 online sales will be published shortly. They will inevitably have smashed every prediction and run into the squillions. There will be complaints about deliveries being missed and presents not being there for Christmas Eve, but that is something only Santa will ever get right.

The Golden Child, or was it the Golden Egg of 2007, Facebook, has allegedly plateaued, but I’m not so sure. In South Africa the under-16’s are successfully using it to protest against government legislation banning them from public displays of affection (kissing). And now that is has opened up its profiles to search engine indexing its boundaries are limitless. Is it over valued? I don’t think so.

That said advertising revenues will not keep every internet dreamer alive this year and there may be some causalities. But that’s life. Ogilvy are laying off staff due to the change in the nature of advertising. The great digital switchover continues unabated!

Bill Gates is hanging up his mouse and he and all the other people with a vested interest are predicting this to be the year of the device. Internet technology is going to permeate every device, appliance and runaway dog and child that can be held down long enough to have an implant.

Meanwhile, the assault on Google’s dominance will continue with the development of vertical search, contextual search, humanised search, Uncle Tom Cobbly search. And as ever Google will swat or consume away any irritants like a US aircraft carrier steaming through a dinghy race.

So, it don’t look like the sun is going to set on us yet. Back to work…..

Filed by sam.brownfield on January 9th, 2008 under Rant or Rave?