Predictions for 2009

With the economy the way it is and the way it was in 2008 I think its only suitable to look to the future. Here are my prediction for 2009:

• We’ll see an end to the recession by the end of ‘09. The economy will grow again by the end of the year, but it won’t feel like we’re in the clear until early 2010.
• Facebook will continue to own the social networking space. I love to hate Facebook, but with 140 million users its a tough site to ignore.
• Dwindling budgets will drive Digital PR to be one of the few growth areas for public relations in 2009 and agencies at the forefront of the market will benefit.
• Data portability is going to be a big concept for 2009. With solutions like Facebook Connect and FriendFeed there is an obviously a need for all our web destinations to be under one umbrella and most importantly one username and password.
• Twitter will see a massive increase in active users and as a result an increase brand participation. However this won’t happen until the platform is more stable and there are less outages (GET THE HINT TWITTER!).
• The iPhones’ app store has produced some phenomenal applications, however I look to this year for some truly groundbreaking applications that use every facet of the iPhone capabilities. [So happy to finally write this one and really believe it. I have been harping on about mobile for years and I really think this year could see a lot of traction in the mobile world].
• Privacy will become a major issue as more and more people share information online and I believe it will lead to a serious event that will cause us to reconsider how we openly share on the Internet.

I would love to hear your thoughts and predictions.