That's right, you and I. This is the year where the primary focus is on the Web user - our ability to make choices and our ability to find relevant content. The user-centric experience is finally being delivered.


Life Management

In 2005 we saw significant investment by key online players in customisable and portable Life Management Web services such as MyYahoo, Google's Personalised Home and Microsoft's start.com. These sites allow users to save personal information (address books, bookmarks, photos, electronic files and calendar entries) and display and manage preferred news and information services (weather, news headlines and blogs).

We can expect to see these services further expand into content and search personalisation. We could for example, see the aggregation of search results, news feeds and even product enquiries based on the behaviour of other online users. A current example of this can be seen in the popular book-marking site, del.icio.us.


Localisation

Enhanced online directories and maps have been commercially adopted in the US and Europe using services such as Google Maps and Google Earth (esp. Real Estate) and we can expect the same trend in the Australasian market.

Google Local is expected to be launched on the Australian market imminently. And as Australian businesses turn toward Google Local for commercial directory services, we can expect activity from brands such as Yellow Pages, Where Is and CitySearch to expand and develop their technologies and content capabilities, allowing us to interact with local views of our cities and states.

In fact, News Limited has just released truelocal.com.au.


Content Syndication

With the release (expected early 2007) of Microsoft's long-awaited new Windows operating system, Vista, expect to see mainstream use of RSS content syndication feeds... right onto the desktop. While RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has been with us for some time now - adopted by news sources and blogs primarily - the average user will begin to use RSS as a seamless part of their desktop experience.



Video

This is the year video on the Web will go gang-busters! There have already been over 3 million video downloads from iTunes since the introduction of their video services in mid-October and other media players such as Google are capitalising on the popularity of portable devices like the iPod.

Given the barriers for entry into the video marketplace are so low (i.e. cost of distribution and production) we can expect more underground video content to be introduced to the mainstream market via 'vlogs' (video blogs). Expect to see a proliferation of internet video stars that fill niche markets and gain notoriety and celebrity status.


Google

And finally, our safest prediction for 2006 is, without doubt, that Google will astound us. Expect them to captivate us with their technological innovations (although topping Google Earth will be hard) while dazzling us with their corporate muscle-flexing. Don't be surprised to see Google acquire something big in 2006 - and turn it on its ear.

What will be even more fascinating is whether Google can retain customer loyalty as they go head to head with almost everyone.

Make sure to check out Google Labs regularly.

With all this online activity, it's going to be an exciting 2006!

Labels: Web Culture and Trends