trends

Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker gives an excellent macro Internet presentation at Web 2.0 Summit each year. Internet trends and the economy - mobile impact on markets, retailers, advertising, e-comm.

The spirit of our times... Trying to answer the question about what's next?

The answer is important because it impacts markets, businesses and your websites.

For example, the 2008 USA Year-End Google Zeitgeist shows that the fastest growing terms in search are obama, facebook, att, and iphone. So, how does this help you with keywords research? It can help you to take advantage of trends in your markets. If you can somehow tie your products to the major trends, then you can take advantage of huge amounts of traffic.

Amazon figured out social shopping and e-comm - social e-commerce - a long time ago. They made it easy for consumers (aka prosumers) to make recommendations, write reviews and then share the information with other users. Although, I am not surprised that these ideas failed to catch on with most businesses. Interestingly, most businesses today are missing out on web 2.0 too.

"Eight business technology trends to watch", from Mckinsey Quarterly

Eight emerging trends are transforming many markets and businesses. Executives should learn to shape the outcome rather than just react to it.

Managing relationships

1. Distributing cocreation

The Internet and related technologies give companies radical new ways to harvest the talents of innovators working outside corporate boundaries.

From the NY Times, "Not Buying It".

With the net enabling us all to act on our imagination farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before, it is no surprise that freeganning along with freecycle has taken off.

Web site freegan.info.

The guys over at Influx have a good piece on open innovation and getting the customer involved. It is a two-part series packed with great ideas.

"The rise of  the creative consumer (part one)  and (part two)  -  Consumers now have the opportunity to be more creative and participatory in the marketing, media and entertainment worlds, Influx thought it would make sense to catalog some of the stories, a short history, that highlights this trend and identifies a few examples of the opportunities that exist for consumers to participate.

My has is off to the people that contribute to New Communications Forum. They make it easier to get real insights to the fast changing world of the Net. In their latest issue, they "continue to explore the issue of ethics in the blogosphere" with an article by Jeremy Wright. They also have some provocative writings on Internet Libel (Elizabeth L.