2011 Staff Predictions Editor's note: Every December the ReadWriteWeb team looks into the murky depths of the coming year and tries to predict the future. How did we do last year? Well, Facebook didn't go public, Google Wave didn't make a comeback, and Spotify didn't make it to the U.S. But our forecasts for Google Chrome, cloud computing, Facebook and something we called the "iTablet" were spot on. What's in store for 2011? All this week we've been posting our predictions. ReadWriteWeb's 2011 Predictions: Seamus Condron, Community Manager 1: Groupon will buy Foursquare, ushering in a new era of location-based commerce. 2: Kevin Rose will leave Digg, or sell it for a bargain basement price, then leave. 3: As many witnessed (by accident), the Facebook Pages product will be compeltely re-vamped and will allow brands to have a Facebook voice outside of their Page. 4: QR codes will finally score big with a mainstream industry: wine. 8: A late 2011 RWW post will be titled "Flickr: In Memoriam" Jared Smith, Webmaster
5 Predictions for Startups in 2011 How we engage with the people, places and things around us is ever-changing thanks to rapid improvements in mobile and web technologies. The speed at which this evolution takes place will only continue to accelerate in 2011 with the help of fledgling startups who will push the boundaries around geolocation, mobile photos, entertainment services, community and physical-to-digital connections. What follows is an exploration of five significant startup markets that will grow in significance in 2011. Regardless, the startups iterating in these newly invented product categories will capture our imagination in the year ahead and transform the way we use technology in our daily lives. Read on for five major trends that will hit startups in 2011, and let us know your own predictions in the comments below. 1. As constant web and mobile users, we've all grown accustomed to tagging people and places in photos and status updates. 2. 2010 was the year of the checkin. 3. 4. 5.
Analyst: Tablet Sales Will Triple in 2011, Apple Will Dominate | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD Much as they were in 2010, tablet sales will be a high point of 2011–but even more so. According to Caris & Co. analyst Robert Cihra, tablet sales will more than triple, rising 226 percent to 54 million units. And of those, Cihra believes Apple will claim 67 percent. Which would spike iPad sales from 14 million this year to 36 million in 2011. “We model Apple’s iPad continuing to dominate…in 2011,” Cihra writes in his 2011 forecast. Given that explosion and Cihra’s forecast of a 226 percent spike in tablet sales, how will the the PC fare in 2011? Guess what happened to that missing five percent? Says Cihra, “We see cannibalization from ‘thin-client’ iPads/tablets, particularly vs. netbooks and in multi-PC homes, already growing to 1/7th the size of the overall PC market in 2011 and shaving 5 percentage points off what PC growth might otherwise have been.” Unless, of course, you consider the tablet part of the PC market.
6 Predictions for Social Networks in 2011 The past year was an eventful one for the world of social networking. Facebook went on an acquisition spree. Twitter started growing up. And MySpace? Well it's the same old story over there. In 2010, we predicted that Facebook would conquer the web. Now that Facebook is clearly king, what is going to happen to the rest of the world's social networks? Here are my predictions for what will happen in the world of social networking in 2011: 1. Google dominates search. Until this year, Google's had middling success in social — YouTube, Gmail, Gtalk, Blogger and Orkut have all had varying levels of success. Here's my first prediction of the year: Google's social media efforts will be spectacular failures. More importantly, Google as a company is built for speed and efficiency, neither of which are critical to the success of a social network. 2. Despite a total redesign and overhaul, MySpace continues to plummet like a boulder pushed off a cliff. 3. Bebo's still shrinking though. 4. 5. 6.
5 Ways Charities Will Be Using Social Media In 2011 Social media provides the perfect platform for non-profit organizations and charities to raise campaign awareness, increase donations and actively engage with a wide online audience. As the increase in social media and online PR activity continues to grow into 2011, an increasing number of charities are starting to incorporate social media platforms into their promotional strategies. In light of this, I have outlined 5 key social media opportunities more and more charities will be making the most of in the New Year. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. From ongoing engagement and fundraising activities, to enabling followers to feel part of a collective cause and online community, social media platforms provide charities and the PR companies working alongside them with the perfect opportunity to get more and more people actively involved in supporting and promoting their campaigns in 2011. Connect: Authored by: George Guildford See complete profile
The Top 15 Marketing & Social Media Trends To Watch In 2011 January 2, 2011 | 20 Comments Now that we are in the new year of planning, marketing teams everywhere are crafting and executing their plans for the next 12 months. It’s going to be a busy and competitive year, and in looking back at 2010 there were plenty of big developments that point to a 2011 year filled with innovation, new business models, possibilities for new technologies like mobile and tablets and continued growth and attention on social media. I spent the last week reading many recaps from other blogs and media properties, as well as looking back on some of the most noteworthy developments over the course of 2010. LikeonomicsApproachable CelebrityDesperate SimplificationEssential IntegrationRise of CurationVisualized DataCrowdsourced InnovationInstant PR & Customer ServiceApp-fication of the WebReimagining CharityEmployees As HeroesLocationcastingBrutal TransparencyAddictive RandomnessCulting Of Retail What do you think about this list?
Seven Technologies That Will Rock 2011 So here we are in a new decade, and the technologies that are now available to us continue to engage (and enthrall) in fascinating ways. The rise and collision of several trends—social, mobile, touch computing, geo, cloud—keep spitting out new products and technologies which keep propelling us forward. Below I highlight seven technologies that are ready to tip into the mainstream 2011. Before I get into my predictions, let’s see how I did last year, when I wrote “Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010.” Some of my picks were spot on: the Tablet (hello, iPad), Geo (Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, mobile location-aware search, etc.), Realtime Search (it became an option on Google) and Android (now even bigger than the iPhone). What’s in store for 2011? Web Video On Your TV: We’ve already seen many attempts to turn the Internet into a video-delivery pipe to rival cable TV: Google TV, Apple TV, the Boxee Box, Roku, and a slew of “Internet-enabled” TVs. Photo credit: Flickr/ Pandiyan
things-babies-born-in-2011-will-never-know: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance Huffington Post recently put up a story called You're Out: 20 Things That Became Obsolete This Decade. It's a great retrospective on the technology leaps we've made since the new century began, and it got me thinking about the difference today's technology will make in the lives of tomorrow's kids. I've used some of their ideas and added some of my own to make the list below: Do you think kids born in 2011 will recognize any of the following? Video tape: Starting this year, the news stories we produce here at Money Talks have all been shot, edited, and distributed to TV stations without ever being on any kind of tape. Travel agents: While not dead today, this profession is one of many that's been decimated by the Internet. The separation of work and home: When you're carrying an email-equipped computer in your pocket, it's not just your friends who can find you -- so can your boss. Books, magazines, and newspapers: Like video tape, words written on dead trees are on their way out.
List of Corporate Social Strategists for 2011 Editorial Note: We’re working hard on getting this updated, please forgive me in advance if anyone is missing, I don’t mean to offend, and will update as quickly as possible from your comments. I tend to wait for submissions in comments or I ask strategists I know before putting them on this list. We’ve cleansed the 2010 list, and removed a few dozen folks who have changed career paths, or have switched companies Updates: Jan 10th: I’ve received a few messages with questions about the scope. The Corporate Social Strategist Definition: The Corporate Social Strategist is the business decision maker for social media programs – who provides leadership, roadmap definition, and governance; and directly influences the spending on technology vendors and service agencies. List of Corporate Social Strategists for 2011 Airline Automotive Business Services Chemicals Consumer Product Goods Educational Services Electronics, Devices, Mobile Energy Financial Services Health and Life Sciences Retail