Free Website Content - 2005 in Review
2005 Took the World by Storm
2005 literally took the world by storm. The tragedies
of the Asian Tsunami, the Hurricanes that blew through the
US Gulf Coast and the earthquakes that swallowed parts of
Pakistan have left an indelible mark on 2005. While mother
nature cast a shadow on 2005, it was technology that delivered
the impact that resulted in a huge outpouring of donations.
The world was touched by the human element seen real-time
in pictures and videos. Today's technology was able to deliver
the graphical grittiness that portrayed the nightmares occurring
half a world away.
Technology is usually thought of as impersonal,
but something needs to be recognized; without technology
the personal elements of the 2005 tragedies would not likely
have been conveyed to the extent and timeliness they were.
Reflecting on 2005 and looking forward to 2006, technology
will undoubtedly continue play a significant role in the
future both on a personal and impersonal level.
In 2005 Blogs gave birth to splogs, where
senseless web scrapers generated massive amounts of senseless
content. Spam reached a whole new level, right along side
the ethical debate of content scraping. Copyrights have
been stepped on and I foresee a new host of tools that will
emerge to protect content.
SPAM and phishing scams were easier to recognize,
but to their credit, spammers showed off their creativity,
finding additional channels to inundate. From splogs to
forum spam, 2005 tech users saw spam as one of life's continued
annoyances. Looking into a crystal ball, I fear that social
bookmarking will become the spam vehicle of 2006, weakening
the value of a collective voice.
Sadly the blog saturation has resulted in
web clutter. Due to increased competition and vast quantities
of blogs on free hosted blog networks services, bloggers
competing for audiences and web traffic will result in significant
abandoned content, cluttering the web with useless ramblings.
The ease of blogging that resulted in saturation will be
its downfall. Credibility will again become important. Journalist,
who have suffered from the blogosphere in 2005, will have
a reprieve as credibility becomes an issue for bloggers.
In 2006 web surfers are going to look for multiple sources
to confirm facts, and rely on reliable respected sources,
community content, and collaboration like Wikipedia is going
to suffer and become less relevant in 2006. While Wikipedia
scores well in search, it does not perform as well with
accuracy. The Wikipedia community is haunted by spam and
like DMOZ, it's success will be its downfall. The relevance
of successful community wiki's will fade in 2006.
Cell phones have become personal homing devices,
and it is near impossible to locate a cellular phone that
is not capable of manipulating or taking photos, videos,
graphics and text messages in addition to the traditional
voice calls. It is likely the PDA will become extinct in
2006, as travelers move to a single multifunction device.
In 2007 MP3 players will likely be a common feature of cell
phones.
Wireless growth is still worth noting, as
it has moved from hotspots, to hot zones, to hot cities.
Philadelphia and San Francisco are leading the way as wireless
cities in 2006.
What is in store for 2006? Privacy is a hot
topic that is not going to disappear. Google and the US
Government are battling a Big Brother image. Data mining
has made the collection of data meaningful. Anti-Google
sentiment is growing. Google has fallen from grace, while
Google has made friends on Wall Street, it has disappointed
surfers who have turned to Yahoo and MSN in growing numbers.
2006 will likely result heat up the search engine war with
MSN and Yahoo scrambling for marketshare and Google walking
a tightrope with privacy advocates on one end and monopoly
theorists on the other end.
Google wants to make money, and like it or not data, is
a commodity. Google will likely use the data from their
various ventures to develop new technologies and personalize
content. Conspiracy theorists believe that the Google's
aggregate data will also be used to optimize the fees charged
for pay-per-click, influence organic ranking, or worse yet,
sold.
Google's growth will continue to motivate
privacy advocates and those in the technology field behind
the Attention Truste movement, to work together, to improve
how personal information and subscription information is
used online. I expect we will see a lot of energy and effort
in this area.
Personalized content will be a buzz word for
2006. Whether it is users selecting Podcasts, iTunes, or
purchasing Amazon recommendations the web is learning how
to cater content based on user selections and choices. Web
surfers see personalized content as regaining control of
what they want to watch, see, or listen to. From Tivo to
podcasting, users are taking back control. Yet when the
web serves content that is based on past surfing habits,
who is really in control?
In 2005, marketers were told in no uncertain terms, if
they are not using syndication and RSS, they will not survive.
Well, they have one more chance to get it right. In 2006,
marketers must use RSS as an alternative communication channel.
It will no longer be cutting edge, it will be a must to
survive. Web surfers no longer expect to provide personal
information (an email address) for marketing materials,
they expect to have a choice about how they wish to receive
the content.
Vendors selling through affiliate programs lost ground
in 2005. Publishers found the easy money of pay-per-click
advertising not fraught with the inherent problems of affiliate
tracking and cookie-killers. The increase in click-fraud
and content scraping on AdSense sites will even the playing
field and make affiliate programs more attractive in 2006.
The world is getting smaller, and technological
advancements has not only brought us tragedy, but also has
opened doors and the global market is now a viable option
for small businesses. I believe the globalization trend
will continue in 2006.
Top 10 Winners Predicted for 2006:
Cyber Security
VOIP
Attention Data
RSS/Syndication
Copyprotection
Credibility
Privacy
Alternative Energy (reusable fuel, clean energy)
Content Filtering
VideoTunes (iTunes with Video)
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and
podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage
http://www.notepage.net
a wireless text messaging software company.
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the issue or a link to any online posting would be greatly
appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
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