Web Predictions for 2010 close

2009 was the year of smart phones, real time technology and augmented reality. So what does 2010 have in store? We have compiled a list of 5 web trends we will be seeing more of in 2010, and what they mean for you.

1. There isn’t an app for that
Flash didn’t get an invite to the Apple party. Apple have cited various reasons for not enabling Flash to work on the iPod or iPhone, amongst these reasons are a drain on battery life and not enough expertise in the Flash industry.

Despite this, Adobe have soldiered on and have announced that Creative Suite 5 will allow flash apps to be converted so that they run on iPods and iPhones. This is good news for Flash developers but does the app world really need a 2,000,000 strong influx from the Flash developer community? We’ll find out in 2010.

Join the debate about Flash and Apple

2. Stalkers hit the jackpot
People’s perception of privacy has changed in recent years. Adding vague acquaintances to your chosen social network platform and then keeping them informed about what you’re doing at the weekend and publishing photos of your birthday party to everyone in your network is nothing unusual. But what about letting people see exactly where you are whenever they want? This seems strange to us now but will it become the norm in 2010? With the increasing popularity of technologies such as Loopt, Google Latitude and brightkite which depend on people giving up their geo-location, it won’t be long before the perceived benefits of giving out this information out-weigh the doubts.

So the question is, when this technology hits the mainstream will you be automatically under suspicion if you decide against using it?

See a video demo of Google Latitude

3. Cloud Computing
Programmes and documents will no longer be tied to our desktops, instead they will be stored on servers based elsewhere – these servers are known as ‘The Cloud’.

Much talked about in 2009 but 2010 will see the biggest advances in this area, not least because Windows will be launching free online versions of MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Q1 or 2 of 2010 and Google promising the release of Chrome OS in the last half of 2010.

Promoting collaboration and making it easy for people to work together from different locations will have enormous benefits for businesses. The interesting thing will be to see how it will benefit individuals as well.

It’s a complicated subject, find out more about what Cloud Computing will mean for you.

4. Express checkout
The advent of online shopping has made cash transactions seem like a thing of the past. Debit and credit cards are also at risk of becoming obsolete as mobile phone payment looks set to hit the big time in 2010. Transactions will be made in one of four ways; SMS, Direct billing, mobile web payments or using wireless communication technology (also known as NFC - Near Field Communication).
This practice is being adopted at a fast pace by European and Asian markets, and with technological advances afoot, it will soon be the norm to pay for something via your mobile.

Read more about advances in mobile payment technology and download a report on NFC

5. Free content or paywalls?
In 2009, Rupert Murdoch became the poster boy for the anti-free content contingent. He has waged a war against Google and all news aggregators (or “parasites” as he likes to call them) that crawl news sites and deliver this content to people on third party sites such as Google News. As he sees it this is theft and can only be combated by introducing paywalls and blocking third parties from crawling his content.  

2010 will be the decider, what works for news organisations in the 21st Century – paywalls or online advertising? So far this year Rupert Murdoch’s company, News International, has blocked online news aggregator, NewsNow, from displaying any content belonging to the company.  Surprisingly (and despite threats) Google hasn’t been blocked, whether NewsNow is a trial before they decide whether to cut-off Google, a site with considerably more online clout, remains to be seen.

If Google are blocked, only then will we be able to tell if these are the desperate and misguided actions of someone who does not understand the new generation of media consumers or whether it is a revolutionary action that will undermine Google’s ever-expanding empire and prompt others to follow Murdoch’s lead.

See a breakdown of both sides of the story here