The Future Of Search Marketing In 2009

[cheena]

The countdown is on. Only a handful of sleeps until 2009 and of course the predictions are flowing thick and fast. The experts are gazing into their crystal balls and sharing their visions for 2009 in terms of search, social, online, mobile and marketing in general.

I've pulled together a list of the best predictions I've uncovered so far and detailed them below. (if I've missed any - share them via our comments, and I'll add them in).

Of course we had to get involved in the future gazing fun, and have thrown our predictions in the mix. So first up, here's where Warren Duff, ineedhits CEO, thinks 2009 will take us:

1. Google will cull non-revenue generating services in an effort to exceed analyst expectations. The share price will not recover to its $600USD high.
2. Google will also face a massive legal challenge in 2009 from a non US country regarding its business practices.
3. The Web 2.0 bubble will burst with many companies entering the "dead pool". The only companies which will survive will be those who have a sustainable business model.
4. Twitter will be bought by a major internet player and whilst will remain free to use for basic version, a premium service offering will emerge. Will continue to be plagued by reliability issues whilst seriously challenging mainstream media and blogs in breaking news.
5. Yahoo! value will drop considerably, forcing even further reduction in forces worldwide. Their search market share will continue to decline at the benefit of Google and Microsoft. Microsoft will over take Yahoo! in terms of search share within the US, forcing Yahoo! to reconsider its search options.
6. Search spending growth will slow considerably in the first half of the year but still grow (single digits). Growth will accelerate to double digits by end of 2009.
7. 2009 will be known as the year that SaaS becomes mainstream, with fortune 500 companies adopting it to reduce costs. Amazon will loose its place as the number one provider of cloud services to start ups, with major IT vendors all offering competiting products but with a far superior development interface i.e. merging of cloud services into traditional desktop development tools.

[rayter]

I think social media optimization is the "in" thing this year. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc. have been dominating the cyberspace today.

[yummy30]

I think social media optimization is the "in" thing this year. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc. have been dominating the cyberspace today.

Agree with this one, and giants like Googl and Yahoo can also be seen the tendcy to develop in this way!:D:D