Last week we published a list of web technology predictions for 2007, along with a poll asking which trend you think will be *the* biggest of 2007. Social networks dominated the Web scene in 2006, so what will be the equivalent in 2007?
We've had 1,235 votes so far (but we'll leave the poll open until 31 December). Here, in order of popularity, are the results at this stage:
1. Online Video / Internet TV 27% (337 votes)
2. Continued rise of browser-based apps (Ajax, Google, etc) 22% (275 votes)
3. Mobile Web 15% (185 votes)
4. RSS and structured data 12% (153 votes)
5. Rich Internet Apps (Apollo, WPF, etc) 9% (116 votes)
6. Web Office / Enterprise web apps 6% (77 votes)
7. Semantic Web 6% (75 votes)
8. Other (please comment) 1% (17 votes)
Given the impact YouTube had on 2006, it is not that surprising that Online Video / Internet TV is considered most likely to be the biggest Web trend of 2007. Google of course has prime position in this space now, after snapping up YouTube near the end of 2006. Perhaps of most interest is what the big media, TV and movie companies do next year - so far it's been a series of tentative deals between YouTube and big media, but 2007 may be the year that big media build (or buy) their own online video solutions. Watch this space...
It's a light posting week here on R/WW - but for those of you not out enjoying the xmas/new year break, here is a list of Read/WriteWeb's most popular posts in 2006. This is according to our server logs.
But honestly, you really should be reading a good book instead of blogs at this time of year ;-) I know I am!
10. Netscape Community Backlash; 1 July
When Netscape.com got re-branded into a Digg-style community news site, there was a lot of backlash within the Netscape community about it. This post tracked the upheaval - it was the most commented post on R/WW this year, with over 200 mostly negative comments before we closed it off.
9. 2007 Web Predictions; 19 December
The R/WW team pondered what web technology trends will be important over 2007.
8. List of Web 2.0 Lists; 5 May
A list of all the main web 2.0 lists - and other helpful web product data.
7. Yahoo! Mail Beta Release - Exclusive Podcast With Ethan Diamond; 13 September
In September Yahoo released the new Ajax-powered version of Yahoo Mail to all users in the US and across 18 international markets. We spoke exclusively to Ethan Diamond, director of product management for the new Yahoo! Mail.
6. New-look Google Reader Is Stunning!; 28 September
Late September Google Reader, Google's web-based RSS Aggregator, had a re-design which impressed R/WW's editor. With a look n' feel very much like Gmail, we believe it is a pointer to Google Reader being prepped for mainstream promotion - and/or merged with Gmail. Probably a bit of both, as a standalone RSS Reader is always going to be needed.
5. Exclusive: New Yahoo! homepage; 15 May
In May the world's most visited webpage, Yahoo.com, had a major re-design and Read/WriteWeb had the inside story. As well as the first in-depth look at the new yahoo.com, we had an exclusive podcast interview with Yahoo! Chief Product Officer Ash Patel and Vice President of Front Doors Tapan Bhat.
4. Firefox 2.0 Review; 17 October
Alex Iskold described Firefox 2.0 as "a solid release", noting that "the team's focus on performance, stability, usablity and security clearly results in a better, faster product - and users will be pleased with that."
3. Search 2.0 vs Traditional Search; 20 July
Ebrahim Ezzy's influential post defined search 2.0 as search technologies "designed to combine the scalability of existing internet search engines with new and improved relevancy models; they bring into the equation user preferences, collaboration, collective intelligence, a rich user experience, and many other specialized capabilities that make information more productive."
2. Top 10 Firefox Web 2.0 Add-ons; 29 August
Alex Iskold and I reviewed the best Firefox add-ons for Firefox 2.0. Firefox was consistently the most used browser for R/WW readers this year, ending the year at around 60% browser share for this site.
1. GoogleOS: What To Expect; 21 November
Emre Sokullu's number 1 smash hit not only became the biggest post of the year on Read/WriteWeb, but had us accused of smoking crack and all manner of other insults :-) But with over 100 comments, this post definitely stirred up a great discussion and deserved to be number 1 for 2006. Note: one of the comments was from my non-techie father, who normally does not comment on R/WW - but on this occasion he felt compelled to interrupt the Google navel-gazing with a Beatles joke.
So another great year on Read/WriteWeb - and you can see from this list of top posts how big a contribution the extended R/WW writing team made. Thanks Alex, Emre, Ebrahim, John, Rudy, and all the other super-smart guest writers R/WW has had over 2006. Here's looking to an even better 2007!
This is the third annual Best Web Companies round-up from Read/WriteWeb (ref: 2005 and 2004). This year we're spreading it out over 2 separate posts and this is the second one - see yesterday's post for Best BigCo of 2006.
It was a very hard decision this year, for a few reasons. Firstly a number of the frontrunners for Best LittleCo ended up being acquired by the end of the year! This is probably the nature of the beast - if you're a successful Web LittleCo, then you'll attract the attention of BigCo suiters. This is exactly what happened to our 2004 picks, Ludicorp (creator of Flickr) and del.icio.us - both of which were snapped up by Yahoo in 2005. Having said that, 2005 LittleCo winner 37Signals is still independent and doing its own thing.
So to 2006 - which LittleCo's have most impressed? In our post asking that very question, the following web apps were popular with commenters: MyBlogLog (the social networking widget featured in the sidebar of R/WW and other blogs), Meebo (web-based IM), DigitalJournal.com (social news), 30Boxes (online calendar), Zoho (web office suite), Clipmarks (social bookmarking), Netvibes (start page). Those were the ones that were mentioned more than once.
This is the third annual Best Web Companies round-up from Read/WriteWeb (see 2005 and 2004). This year we're spreading it out over 2 separate posts. In this post, we announce Best Bigco and the runners-up - with our special brand of analysis too. In our next post, we'll announce Best Web LittleCo of 2006 and the Most Promising Web Company/Innovator.
We lead off with a somewhat predictable choice for Best Bigco of 2006. In the poll we ran to ask which Internet bigco most impressed you, 53% of respondents voted for Google. Despite this, for a while we were tempted to pick Amazon (which was second in our poll with 14% of the vote), due to its outstanding innovation. But when it came down to it, Google's influence and impact throughout 2006 has been second to none - so Google once again gets the Read/WriteWeb Bigco of the Year honor (it was also the first recipient, in 2004).
It's December already and so it's about that time to reflect on what has happened in Web Technology during 2006 - and ponder what 2007 may bring. Over the next few weeks Read/WriteWeb is going to publish some in-depth posts analyzing the trends and new products we've seen in 2006, as well as musing on some specific things we'll probably see in 2007.
To kick this series off, here is an overview of some high level trends from 2006. In our next post, we'll make predictions for 2007. We're also looking for YOUR feedback, to ensure that what we cover over the next few weeks is complete.
I have to thank kiwi journalist Mark Evans for the inspiration for this series. Mark recently had an article published in Management Magazine that outlined Web trends for 2006 and 2007. Mark interviewed me for that article and so this post (and the next) will utilize much of the thinking I did to contribute to Mark's article. Here goes...
- Undoubtedly 2006 has been the year of the social network. MySpace, YouTube, Facebook have been the three outstanding success stories - but also impressive was Bebo (in the UK particularly) and there was strong growth in existing web 2.0 networks like Flickr and del.icio.us. The zenith of this social networking craze was probably Google buying YouTube for $1.65 B.
- RSS continues to inch towards the mainstream - Yahoo integrated it into Y! Mail Beta, Microsoft is utilizing it more (e.g. integrated into IE7), Google came out with Google Base and the GData format (which is based on the RSS variant, ATOM). While 2006 can't be seen as the breakthrough year for RSS in the mainstream, we will probably see RSS bloom in 2007 as a result of the groundwork done in '06 by the big Internet companies. Note that there have been recent murmurs that Yahoo is scaling back RSS, but I think this is a short-term trend only.
