The number one trend/thing that 2009 will be remembered for

[SophieM]

OK, so lots of things took off into the big time last year or made the news, Twitter, Obama, the Credit Crunch, all things that 2008 will be remembered for or became big influences in the world.

So, what do you think the big trend in 2009 will be? What do you think it will be remembered for? From the perspective of internet marketers, entrepreneurs, journalists and everyone else.

For me:

# Microblogging will become big(ger)
# Financial systems reshaped and restructured
# Pokemon cards make a return (hopefully...I want to sell my old ones)

What about you?


Sophie
FindCollege.info

[Woodcs82]

The plane crash landing on the Hudson River so far

[1entrepreneur]

I think Google will release horrendous first and second quarter profit results.

It has already started laying off thousands of temporary staff, and reducing employee perks.

No doubt Adsense publishers will all be dragged down.

[Phranksizzle]

Airbrush Tanning

Seriously, I think the economy is going to be a big issue (it will get better) and whether or not gas prices go back up will be a big issue with everything.

[rejoice]

world praise of internet marketing, porn, and network marketing joining hands

[kimbeckers]

The plane crash landing on the Hudson River so far

I agree, that was amazing.

[speedguy]

I think that the economy will top the chart for 2009. More specifically deflation in the US may be on the cards.

In the tech sector I believe we will be seeing some consolidation with the bigger players eating up the smaller ones .. and less startups (especially those without a clear revenue model)

[byzantium]

I think that this will be the year "free" goes the way of the dodo, contrary to expectations. There's an article in WSJ Weekend about this. The free internet sites that tried to make a killing off advertising thought they could always tap a bottomless well of money. Well, the well is dry. The next thing to dry up may well be the free services. Google will live, albeit in reduced form. Yahoo may not. Other than that, it's up in the air.

Most of these sites can't pay their broadband bills without angel investors, never mind the crazy salaries that they pay themselves, and all the perks too. Eventually everybody will hit a brick wall, and DIE. That means most of these free services that do Something Really Kewl but that don't have real business models will go away, and the geeks running them will be doing computer repair gigs in Billings, Montana. Ashley Qualls will be flipping burgers in Ann Arbor and learning Spanish in her spare time so she can understand the manager.

Silicon Valley is going DOWN, and that means pain possibly greater than the dot.com bust. Rent may actually decline in San Jose. All those condo towers in San Francisco will be home to pigeons. Venture capitalists will go bust. It WON'T be pretty. I think there will be ONE social networking site left, simply because the concept is too innovative to ever go away, like search engines.

In case there's zero left, and my service goes bust with them, I've got a backup plan. I'll do computer repair. In the Gold Belt of eastern Nevada. At least the gold isn't going anywhere.