Tis The Season to Predict Trends

With 2006 barreling down on us ( by the way we still don't have a name for this decade and I'm still campaigning for D1/2K), futurists, trend observers and big picture folks are sharing what our world will look like during the next 12 months.

I love this stuff. And I really love the outlook this year. If things go the way the experts say, it could be our cutest year ever.

Netimperative is sharing the predictions for the Top 10 Online Marketing trends predicted by the  interactive  marketing firm 24/7 Real Media. My personal favorite is the number one trend

"1.Consumer-generated media will become increasingly attractive to advertisers

Podcasting, blogs and 'wiki' will continue to gain momentum and attract an increasing number of consumers - both content creators and content users. All indicators point to consumer generated media becoming a promising 'ad spend' opportunity, particularly for advertisers looking to reach specific micro-communities. Interactive advertising service providers seeking to capitalise on these opportunities will need to provide scale in both global advertiser acquisition and service delivery, and in data complexity - handling hundreds of thousands of sites with millions of transient visitors. New technologies will make ad delivery easier for publishers and advertisers, including filtering unsuitable content to protect advertisers from unwanted impressions. Better blog and audio/video search tools will increase traffic and dramatically improve relevance metrics. "

Over at Diva Marketing, my friend Toby is sharing how well some of last year's predictions turned out. As she recalled an  evening with some marketing associates

in  Seattle she remembered this:

"Over local brews, Robert made another prediction. His thoughts were that during 2005 blogs would continue to grow in popularity and visibility as a marketing strategy. But it would not be until  2006 that blogs would really take off. With all of the blog books that were released this year and more about to drop next year, Robert just might just be right. Cool!

That's 2 out of 2 saying that blogs are going to take off (marketing wise) in 2006. Eager to track what the other predictors will have to say.

Now, if we could just agree on a name for the decade.