Six Hot Tech Bites for 2009
Get your dish of hot 2009 tech bites. Take a peek at the nFusion media and interactive technology experts’ list of what’s on the table for next year.
Google Chrome browser. While Chrome, Google’s new Web browser, has only 1% of market share — and that’s only with Windows users as of now — Google is planning a release for Mac computers…soon. We don’t know when they’ll put out the beta, but as the date approaches, so does the excitement. Google Chrome promises a faster interface, top site thumbnails and intuitive desktop integration. If the Mac version doesn’t come out in ’09, those in the know will continue to spur anticipation. If it does emerge in ’09, watch out for a blitz of reviews and an explosion of users. Watch out, too, for more integration between Google search/advertising capabilities and Chrome.
Internet release-only music. It’s no news that the Internet has increasingly become the place to download and/or listen to music, whether it’s listen-only excerpts from Amazon.com or complete MP3s from the iTunes Store. But it’s also been the place where artists have been increasingly and exclusively releasing music for over the past decade. As evidenced by Radiohead’s 2007 release of In Rainbows and Nine Inch Nails’ release of Ghosts I-IV, seeding the Net with content to create buzz and demand for CDs and/or premium-priced content works; it gets early adopters on board, enables artists to keep up with musical trends and decreases the risk of illegal downloading. Look for more Internet-release-only sounds in 2009.
Micro-blogging. Enabling what are called “status updates,” micro-blogging allows someone to post a short, in-the-moment notice to be viewed by anyone or by a select group. To post, micro-bloggers use text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, MP3s or social networking sites such as Twitter, Plurk or Facebook. Micro-blogs are quicker to read than most traditional blog entries and serve as "pings" that keep people in touch. 2008 was fast, but 2009 will be faster; look out for the rise of micro-blogging.
Hulu and sites like it. Hulu is an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips at Hulu.com and other online destination sites — all for free, anytime in the U.S. It differs from YouTube in that it offers content only from the premium providers, e.g., FOX, NBC, Universal, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. And the interface is more polished. Hulu seems to be set up as a feeder to premium, paid content, a venue that could be the harbinger of TV’s demise.
In-video-game advertising. The hottest video games have become complex simulations of real life, and this simulation has invited advertisers to seed messages in virtual landscapes creatively — much as they do in the actual landscape. Popular examples of this phenomenon include Electronic Arts’ 2007 SimCity game’s inclusion of BP-branded energy utilities and Barack Obama’s $44K virtual billboard media buy inside the game Burnout Paradise. As technologies such as TIVO and others continue to allow users to edit out advertising, we’ll see the ads appearing more and more within emerging content venues such as video games.
iPhone applications. While the iPhone already boasts a number of innovative applications such as Google Maps and Weather, the floodgates have been opened to third-party developers to contribute apps that will enable users to further customize their iPhones. Look forward to new third-party apps such as iCube, a virtual Rubik’s cube; MobileCast, the app that enables you to download audio and video podcasts on the go, and Sketches, the painting and “etch-a-sketch” app that allows you to create and then export drawings to sites such as Twitter and Facebook. What do more iPhone apps mean for 2009? Watch out for further investment in mobile technology and mobile advertising.
