Week of January 28, 2008

PMG Prediction for 2008: Personal Tracking Becomes A Reality

Friday, February 1, 2008

"Geolocation" will become one of the buzz words this year. Applications will tie into GPS phones and cell tower triangulation services like Google's mobile maps application to create a new era of location-tagged content. Cell phone pictures uploaded to Flickr can be tagged by where they were taken; mobile blog posts will also have a location option. In fact, with the latest phones, all mobile content creation will have the option of being tagged to the location where they are created. We will also see existing mobile services upgraded by personal location-Maps applications will follow your location by default; Restaurant and movie listings will be tailored to physical location, as well.

For more details about this and 18 other predictions, send an email to hq@pollackmedia.com and request our new media trends report--The New Media Landscape.

PMG Prediction for 2008: The Biggest Security Breach In History Will Occur

Thursday, January 31, 2008

It is most likely that this breach will be by a hacker looking to cause mischief or a disgruntled employee releasing a large database of confidential information, but this may also come about from corporate ineptitude. We've already seen thiswith the loss of records of millions ofpeople by the British National HealthService, a Mediadefender employeereleasing corporate emails on theInternet, and other examples. Withmore and more people online thestakes will only get higher.

For more details about this and 18 other predictions, send an email to hq@pollackmedia.com and request our new media trends report--The New Media Landscape.

PMG Prediction for 2008: Users Will Have Less Privacy

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Even in the face of evidence that users are becoming more concerned with privacy issues (e.g. research from Pew that younger users are less open to trading privacy for functionality), we will see even less personal privacy moving forward. Driving this will be new technologies that make life easier on consumers. For example, by providing access to a user's GPS data, he or she will be able to see a constantly updated map of their location from Google, and a list of nearby restaurants. Similarly, consumers will freely trade data about their life in exchange for everything from chances to win a prize to easy-to-use checkbook applications.

For more details about this and 18 other predictions, send an email to hq@pollackmedia.com and request our new media trends report--The New Media Landscape.

PMG Prediction for 2008: Trust Moves From A Promise To A Feature

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

We got a glimpse of the potential issues facing an open application framework with the warning that the "Secret Crush" Facebook application installs the Zango adware/spyware software on your system. In the future we will see more instances of social network applications being installed which contain malware.

These rogue social network applications will be quickly removed, but the damage to users' trust will remain. A major problem for open social network applications will be developing the trust of users after these problems make headlines. Companies like Rockyou, which have a history of distributing trusted applications, will gain even more traction due to their being a "trusted source."

For more details about this and 18 other predictions, send an email to hq@pollackmedia.com and request our new media trends report--The New Media Landscape.

PMG Prediction for 2008: Cross-Social Network Applications Take Off

Monday, January 28, 2008

The private beta of Bunchball is the proof of concept: You can now create an application that can connect the users of two different social networks in real time (in this case, Facebook and Bebo). By the end of the year, an application will launch that natively utilizes the user base of multiple major social networks within each network, and it will immediately make huge waves.

It will do this in a way that uniquely illustrates the power of connecting these networks, whether it is via gaming or sharing user content. It may be as simple as a Superwall that exists in both Facebook and Bebo or as complex as a chess league that works within and between Facebook and MySpace.

For more details about this and 18 other predictions, send an email to hq@pollackmedia.com and request our new media trends report--The New Media Landscape.