SEO Blog

Yesterday, Dave Davies and I used our weekly WebmasterRadio.fm show Webcology to predict the key trends and fortunes of the coming year. When we agreed to do a predictions show two weeks ago, I figured it would fairly easy. I have been writing an annual predictions column for at least five years and each one rolled off my fingers quickly. It should be as simple as it was last year, right?

I was wrong. While we did a fine show, it tended to be more of a conversation about how search and social media was faring and less about predicting where it was going. For a number of reasons, the predictions have been far harder to make this year.

The world we work in is changing quite rapidly. Change has been a dominant theme in my thoughts in 2006 and 2007 and entering 2008, we see those changes seriously manifesting all around us. The pace of evolution in the market, the greater economy, the environment and in global politics is going to get faster. Each of these meta-areas has a direct effect on the business of search and Internet marketing as we know it and each has to be factored into every prediction. As we are starting to realize about Global Warming, the pace of change is accelerating exponentially. In 2008 what we have known to be solid ground is going to get rather swampy, much like the permafrost around Hudson’s Bay.