Hi all
Phew! Sounds like there are some very clued-up webmeisters on this course!
1. In addition to the trends mentioned in the other student's posts, I think the following are some emerging internet trends:
- Growth of Wicki platforms - especially in businesses as a training and information gathering tool.
- Use and availability of opensource and freeware will increase.
- Social media platforms will continue to revolutionise the way we do business. Already smart businesses have tapped into Facebook etc as a powerful way to advertise, influence a huge potential audience and get feeback on their product for 'free'. Because these platforms are so up-to-the-minute they can be a marketing goldmine, but they can destroy a product just as fast.
- leading on from this (and it may be happening already) I think companies will starting recruiting and paying expert bloggers to sell / push certain products to the extent that the blogger will become the brand / trusted face through which companies sell thier products. People trust word-of-mouth more than traditional advertising.(for now anyway!)
- denitely agree with the comments on mobile access to the internet. That is, after all why Google has set up offices in SA.
- agree also with more video, graphics, animation, etc as the major forms of webcontent for the future
