Which predictions for 2006 came true?

This time last year we made 5 predictions for 2006 and so here’s a quick summary of our list and what actually happened:

1) Internet growth continues: OK, so this wasn’t difficult to get wrong, but the rapid uptake in broadband usage, both in the UK, Australia and other countries, has demonstrated that the web is now a significant trading zone for both consumer and business spend. Improved access speeds have led to new creativity in advertising and the use of interactive sites, although search marketing continues to grow at a much faster rate than other forms of online advertising as more and more companies realise the potential of this form of cost-effective online advertising. It is becoming harder for new entrants to establish a successful business on the web, although better marketing planning and campaign implementation can help to ensure the best opportunities against established online businesses.

2) Search marketing gains recognition: as noted above, search marketing continues to boom and the introduction of Microsoft’s new PPC tool last year added another option to this section of the market in the US and UK. Both the optimisation and PPC market is now becoming more crowded and increasingly competitive in many business sectors, yet there are still good results to be achieved. Many large marketing agencies are now developing their in-house search marketing teams, whereas the older established specialists continue to do well as new entrants find it harder to gain a foothold. Just before the end of the year, the merger between one of the UK’s largest SEM agencies and a German search firm was indicative of the way this business sector has developed over the past 2-3 years.

3) The PPC market gains a new channel: Microsoft’s AdCenter tool launched in the US at the start of the year and then in the UK during the late summer, marking a significant change to the established PPC monopoly between Google and Yahoo! Although it has yet to demonstrate any significant volumes of traffic, the Microsoft service has introduced new levels of PPC management tools that have been replicated by Google, to some extent, and will also feature in Yahoo!’s new system to be launched in 2007.

4) Another big year for Google: yes, Google continued to grab the headlines and make lots of money over the past year, with new developments in its online ‘office’ tools, including a calendar system and spreadsheet. Although Google didn’t get to launch its own web browser yet, it did pull off a major purchase of the highly popular YouTube website and we will therefore expect more developments in this area soon.

5) Online viral attacks: thankfully our prediction didn’t happen in any significant form, although spam remains a major issue for business with reports that it grew by 30% last year and accounted for around 90% of all email traffic. The technological and legal developments have so far failed to reduce the volumes reaching most inboxes ‘ if anything, December saw a particularly big increase in trashy automated messages. Microsoft did launch an updated version of the Internet Explorer browser, although this had to fix some potential loopholes within the first few weeks.

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