A recent survey looking at usage of the Internet by young Brits has found that the Web is replacing television as the entertainment of choice for young people - no doubt the same would be true if New Zealand users were surveyed.

The survey, ordered by social networking giant MySpace, found 25% of people aged between 18 and 24 had reduced their television watching and were now more likely to be networking or socialising online. Not only are they turning from the lure of TV, they’re also giving up video games in favour of Internet browsing.

When online, users are visiting social networking sites (in Australia, time spent on MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and other social sites avereages between 21 and 27 minutes per day), as well as sending emails and instant messages to friends.

So, what’s the crux of this? Young people are choosing socialising online over television and other forms of entertainment… and maybe, over socialising in the real world. It seems that the Web is the new television, so if young Kiwis are following the global trend, they’d prefer to be superpoking on Facebook than watching New Zealand TV. The collaborative virtual world of online networking sites is now officially a phenomenon, but where will it go to from here? How reliant will we become on making social connections in cyberspace?

Now that you’ve got your new year’s resolutions sorted out, it’s time to make your predictions for Internet trends, developments and happenings in 2008. Surf the Web and you’ll find countless predictions - from top analysts to beginner bloggers, and anyone interested in the online world. Just some of the developments may be in…

Social networking
One of the biggest Internet news stories of 2007 was Facebook, whose social networking and profile site defined the shift towards a global networking community. During the coming year, established social networking sites will consolidate themselves, and new faces may emerge to compete (although any success is unlikely against the big players).

And if you’re one of the many people with profiles on several community sites - Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube - you’ll benefit from the possible emergence of tools that will allow you to update all your online identities from one place. You’ll save time (no more social bookmarking nightmares!) and increase the efficiency of your social networking.

Search
Fundamental to the discovery and gathering of information online, Internet search is here to stay. Watch for major search engines adopting new algorithms, as well as offering solutions for a more personalised search experience through customisation of public search engine tools.

Advertising will also become increasingly integrated into the online search environment, as will search results in a wide range of visual media (note Google’s adoption of search results featuring images and online video clips). While Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will remain an essential part of marketing online, Google PageRank and link weighting are both expected to decrease in power, as part of a global trend to control spam and improve relevancy of results.

Video sharing and TV online
A key feature of the increasingly interactive online world has been the success of video sharing sites such as YouTube. In the year from late 2006 to late 2007, the number of users watching online videos grew by 45% - a trend which is expected to continue in 2008 with the higher speeds and increased adoption of broadband Internet.

Far from being the realm of amateur entertainment, this field has become a vehicle for music videos, lectures, alternative news sources, television and movie clips, and much, much more. Access to television online through Web based television channels and independent online TV programming will grow in 2008; watch for the first successful 100% online television show.

Online advertising
Advertising on the Internet can be subtle or obvious; whichever the case, it’s there in some form and is part of almost every user’s online experience. The coming year will see a continuation of recent growth in this field; as mentioned in an earlier post on Internet advertising, investment in online advertising space is growing rapidly, while spending in traditional advertising media is expected to showing a corresponding decrease.

We look forward to a year of exciting developments in the Web world!

Microsoft has paid US$240 million for a 1.6% stake in social networking site, Facebook, making the company instantly worth US$15 billion.

Does this statement ring true? My view on this is that it’s a ridiculous theory.

Sure, if you do the maths considering current equity positions, it might come to $15 billion, but is that really what Microsoft is buying into? The most important part of the press release tells us that Microsoft is now the exclusive advertising partner for Facebook until the year 2011. The 1.6% equity stake is just extra gravy.

Similarly, Google paid US$900 million for exclusive advertising rights for MySpace a few years ago. If they had received a 1.6% share, does that make MySpace worth some multiplicative factor of $900 million?

If the press release had simply said, Microsoft pays $250 million for exclusive advertising rights, no one would have batted an eye. Microsoft has not paid US$15 billion for Facebook, but rather has purchased advertising rights. But I think it’s brilliant on Microsoft’s part taking 1.6% equity; the equity has little monetary value - it’s unlikely that Facebook will ever be worth $15 billion - but look, aren’t we all talking about it?

This is a win for Microsoft. And naturally, a win for Facebook.

Well, it seems like just yesterday that the only way to have your say on community issues was by writing a letter to the editor (hand writing, mind) and posting it by snail-mail to your local newspaper. Now, thanks to sites like uthink, you can have your say on pretty much anything that tickles your fancy (or gets you in a lather!).

Taking a look around this community forum, you’ll find a plethora of issues that have sparked discussion, outrage and strongly voiced opinions. Want to know what people really think about child abuse, Air New Zealand carrying troops to Iraq, or the judicial system in New Zealand? Then take a look at what uthink tells us wethink.

But it’s not all current events; it’s more like a snapshot of New Zealand society, with everyone getting a look-in. I suppose it highlights what matters to us at any given moment. Topics span everything from movie reviews to parenting, relationships, sport, lifestyle choices, and those great dividers, religion and politics.

One of the things I love about this site is that it has one of those nifty tag clouds (like our very own Swicki search). Tags are simply a way of indexing and categorizing information using selected keywords (for instance, an article on endangered monkeys might be tagged with ‘animals’ and ‘conservation’). You can tag almost anything: articles, websites, pictures and videos. This allows all the links/pictures/articles with the same tag to be viewed together.

A tag cloud is, as the name suggests, a cluster of tags. The size of each tag’s font in the cloud indicates the relative popularity of each topic. On sites like uthink, the tagging of all posts on the forum means you can easily see current hot topics (the great thing about tag clouds is their dynamic nature - they’re constantly changing!). According to uthink, we’re currently hot under the collar about Nelson, money, power prices and chicks. Amongst other things.

Check out this site and other community forums to get thinking and keep in touch with grass roots New Zealand.

I don’t consider myself ‘old’ yet (whatever that means). I’m firmly in the ‘you’re only as old as you feel’ camp when it comes to the aging debate. But I feel about a thousand years old when I go to a club full of underage faces (’don’t worry, you don’t look 25′) or get invited by friends to join one of the many online social networking sites. MySpace and its clones make me feel like I’ve missed out on something, although I can’t quite put my finger on it. Am I the only person without a profile?

For those like me, who fear they’re losing touch with the kids of today, this just might be the answer…

New Zealander David Wolf-Rooney is soon to launch a networking site for grown-ups, specifically targeting 25-55 year olds. His site, iYomu, will have no advertising and will provide up to 1GB of storage space for music, photos and videos. Most interestingly, though, iYomu will only be open to those over the age of 18. While there’s an exclusive, invite-only beta version available, most of us will have to wait until August 13th for the spectacular launch of iYomu.

Sure it might be snobby to exclude the youngsters, teens and boppers, but I think it’s an interesting idea. With hopeful projections of their own success, the team at iYomu predict they’ll have up to 1 million users in the first month alone. Watch this space…

Meanwhile, if you’re wanting to get social with other Kiwis, visit one of our New Zealand community sites.