eROI Days Email Agency

8. Skype and other easy video-creation apps will take off in ‘09
– I know Skype has been around a little while and it has been incredibly easy and cheap for people with MacBooks or other laptops with built-in cameras and microphones to video conference with their families or business colleagues for a couple years, but Macs only have a tiny market share and PCs are finally getting the picture with affordable add-ons to older machines or built-in cameras/mics in new machines. The Logitech laptop camera was the most popular gift for Christmas among my wife’s extended family this year.

Ok – so this prediction is pretty predictable. Video sites like Hulu.com have won awards and gained massive popularity in 2008, but new applications like Ontier, SplashCast, and others will take video sites to the next level. Hardware has also become so much more affordable to produce decent quality video – besides video being built into most digital cameras, the big game-changer in ‘08 was the Flip camera which will become even more prevalent in ‘09 and drive even more user-generated video and social video.

7. Open-source, powerful tools like WordPress and Magento will become more like social apps and promote UGC (User-Generated Content)
– Last year’s predictions mentioned white-label collaboration software platforms like KickApps, Clearspace, and Ning. Each of these apps gained significant traction in ‘08, but open-source platforms like WordPress’s BuddyPress will gain market share in ‘09. WordPress has already become the standard for blog software and is being used by more web developers as a solid content management system for websites. It only makes sense to extend WordPress into the social networking realm as BuddyPress will do when it launches in ‘09. Additionally, one open-source e-commerce application called Magento which has risen to the top for its stability, feature-set, and ability to customize each interface. Magento already has social networking capabilities like UGC customer reviews, but they will have more developments in integration of social platforms including e-commerce widgets, etc.