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Human Rights  » Technology Predictions for 2006 and Reflections for 2005

Technology Predictions for 2006 and Reflections for 2005

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

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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:

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.