Internet trends 2006
- In keeping with the tradition of offering up some sort of list for the new year, here are some of my forecasts about the Internet in 2006. Please accept my mea culpa now since my outlook will undoubtedly turn out to be off the mark, like most predictions. For instance, I wouldn't have prognosticated at the end of 2004 that the most-searched word on Merriam-Webster's site in 2005 would be "integrity." Nor would I have guessed that Google would top $100 billion in valuation, and take a 5% stake in Time Warner's AOL, or that engineers would be better at advertising than professional marketers.
But here are some:
At least one Apple product will be in each room of our homes. Apple's my top pick for Internet-related stocks in 2006. EBay goes head to head with Comcast, but eBay wins. The gap between Microsoft's market cap and Google's will narrow. But it doesn't mean that Google's market cap will have to double. A media giant will take technology seriously and buy a video search company. Amateur or user-generated video will emerge as entertaining content to be used in commercials. A big media giant or an Internet giant -- Google, Yahoo or Microsoft's MSN -- will automate licensing and copyright protection for new undiscovered talent. We'll socialize online in ways we can't even imagine. I will take this blog seriously, and write more often.
For more on my predictions, go to MarketWatch.
Happy New Year!
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