We’ve got about two weeks here at the One Degree offices (virtual as they may be) before we break for the holidays. To wrap up the year in fine style I’ve asked some of the One Degree Contributors to provide us with a rewind of 2006 and a fast forward to 2007 to give you something substantial to chew on as the days get shorter. Colin Smillie shares his thoughts on the highs and lows of this year and what we can expect next year…
1. Rewind – What trends in Internet marketing surprised you in 2006? The speed of the whole Web 2.0 scene and their focus on the niche markets. This is great news for marketing programs that want to get more target customers.
2. Rewind – Did you add any new tools to your online marketing toolkit in 2006? Video is probably the most obvious new tool. I think RSS feeds really came into their own in 2006. Internet to SMS tools have also taken off outside of North America too.
3. Fast Forward – What do you see as the biggest trends in Internet Marketing in 2007? Reverse publishing to print and other more offline media. Both Google and Yahoo! are moving to take their dominance online to other media. Internet marketing companies are well positioned to allow companies to publish from the internet.
4. Fast Forward – At the end of 2007, what do you expect we’ll be looking back at as overhyped? Web 2.0, many of these sites are focused are markets that are just too small. There will be a lot of failures over the next 12 months and probably even more consolidation.
5. Fast Forward – Any SPECIFIC predictions for 2007? Buy-outs, bubbles bursting, records broken, reputations toppled, break-out companies? I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yahoo and Google get closer. At the same time I’m expecting to see more start-ups as it becomes easier and easier to get a web site off the ground. I’m expecting a lot of these to flourish with minimal VC support.