The end of the year seemed like a fitting time to take a look back, and also to look forward to 2006. Drew, Dan and Chris give their thoughts on what's been and what's to come...
Drew - 5 Online Marketing Predictions for 2006.
2005 has been a year where Search Marketing took the floor in a big way, but what major new e-marketing developments will evolve in the New Year?
- Optimisation will become super niche, and success will rely on a mix of strategy and tactics. In an increasingly competitive arena, Search Engine Optimisers will need to prove their mettle with tighter, more creative search solutions.
- Content Syndication is going to be a vital tool to increase links in 2006. If you don't have unique article based content on your site yet, you should consider hiring an SEO copywriter in the New Year.
- On the other hand, the trend of bought links depreciating in value will continue.
- Email goes back to basics. Simple emails with one clear message gets delivered to and read by an audience exhausted by so much "noise" in their inbox.
- Pay-Per-Click campaigns will need to be meticulously monitored on an individual keyword basis to get the best return on investment.
Dan - Google Vs Yahoo!
Things have been hotting up in the search engine stakes, probably most of all between Google and Yahoo!
Yahoo! has certainly been on the acquistion trail and beefing up its offerings. Following it's acquisition of Inktomi some time ago for its search technology, 2005 saw Yahoo finalise the acquisition of Overture for its advertising capabilities and customer base, with the offering being rebranded Yahoo! Search Marketing. We also saw Yahoo! acquire such Love Brands (that's a Drew-ism 
) as the immensely popular photo-sharing portal Flickr in March and social tagging site del.icio.us in December.
Google of course succeeded in creating two of the most talked about web applications all year - Google Maps and Google Earth - and proved once again its intentions in becoming more than a search engine. Plus in overlaying services-based search with geographical data, it seemed to have gained a slight edge over the Yahoo! Local service, which has now been launched.
Additionally, to rival Flickr, Google has Picasa, a similar photo sharing app. Google also did a bit of acquisition, bringing on board an excellent web statistics package in the shape of Urchin, or Google Analytics as it is now.
After some industry conjecture last year about consolidation between these two, it looks like Google and Yahoo! will be playing each other off for some time. A interesting question for next year will be whether Yahoo!'s Web 2.0 approach will be more successful than Google's more prescriptive stance.
Chris - Google and the future of books.
As at the beginning of the year, Google continues to dominate a lot of Internet News at the end of 2005 as it recently announced that it had agreed a $1bn deal with AOL after beating off competition from Microsoft. However, it is alleged that the deal will mean that AOL content will be ranked ahead of other relevant search results, which has again made people question Google's honest broker assertions.
Which leads me nicely onto another hot topic that Google is involved in (what is it not involved in?!) - that of book indexing, where once again it is battling with Microsoft and others for dominance. Masses of books from libraries around the world are being scanned and being put on-line. Whether the advertising associated with book searches will be enough alone to make this venture economical has yet to be seen, but in the future we could see paid search, subscription or pay per view models being introduced. At the moment it is an interesting development to see where search companies, the public and publishers take these new services. It opens up amazing possibilities with a whole new mass of information being available online, anywhere in the world, at the touch of the button.
However, before we get too carried away about the sum of all human knowledge being accessible through the Internet, my search on Google Book Search for To be or not to be
didn't return any relevant results on the first page! Admittedly my search on Outrageous Fortune
did return the required work of Shakespeare but I think this particular technology has a bit further to go before the libraries around the world need to start worrying!
Carrying on the thread about online books, I am keeping a very careful eye on electronic books because I think that this could change the way we read in the same way the MP3 has changed the way we listen to music.
Imagine being able to take as many books as you like on holiday without adding any additional baggage. Imagine having travel guides for all over the world in one small, light weight pocket sized device and being able to update the content from any Internet connection. No more out-of-date travel guides, no more out-of-date restaurant guides, no need for metres of book shelves in your study at home and to top it all - the ability to search them all instantly, copy a phrase, reference a source and so on - I can't wait!
It seems to me the main barrier at the moment is screen technology - however e-ink and others are making massive strides in coming up with an electronic screen that is as readable as paper.
According to e-ink their technology creates an image that looks like a printed page from all angles and maintains the same contrast ratio under all lighting conditions, including direct sunlight. Aimed at handheld devices, the display uses up to 100 times less energy than a standard liquid crystal display (LCD), so product designers can shed weight and greatly extend battery life
e-Ink's technology has already been included in Sony's LIBRIe, see www.eink.com./press/releases/pr70.html. Unfortunately, the device is only on sale in Japan at the moment but shows us the shape of things to come.
Obviously, we have been here before. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4009955,00.html but like most Internet predications - they were not wrong exactly, it is just that the timescales were a little optimistic.
Despite this, it hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for this technology and I am sure once the costs come down we will see e-books hit the mainstream and change the face of reading, just as MP3 players and download services such as iTunes have altered listening to music.
Dan - A year in site launches!
And finally, Chameleon has had a tremendous 2005 if we do say so ourselves. Looking back at site launches, we saw the following projects completed and launched:
We also have some exciting projects underway now and due for launch in 2006, but we're keeping them under our hat for now! Watch this space...