Karen Barney

Some Predictions for the Online World in 2012

As the year is rapidly coming to an end, there are many predictions about what will change online next year. Here are some of these predictions and how they will affect marketers and consumers alike.

Anyone who does internet marketingis aware that having an outlook to the future is a necessary thing in a fast paced and rapidly changing world such as that of online marketing. The internet itself is going to change next year, according to predictions from experts published by Market Watch. While these changes may not be too dramatic, they're definitely worth looking into. Here are some of them:

ñ     Cloud based services will gain more popularity

Services like SkyDrive, Google Apps, etc. which run on the cloud are expected to get some more use from individual users. As many of these are free and ad supported, anyone working for a digital marketing agency should take a look at the new advertising opportunities that will arise from the increased use of these services. Businesses will also be looking towards cloud based solutions for their needs, which may be very profitable for those operating in the IT services sector, such as service providers, software developers, as well as the marketers and affiliates that help those companies promote and sell their products online.

ñ     Email spam will go down significantly

We all know how annoying email spam can get, so many people would be overjoyed at the prediction that it will go down. However, there shouldn't be too much excitement about this yet. While the “classic” spam of Nigerian scam letters, shady online pharmacies and gambling websites is expected to drop, it is going to be replaced by something else. Junk mail is expected to be more personalized and better targeted to the user. Information will increasingly be collected from data brokers who buy, sell and re-sell customer data to marketers. Some experts say that this email will be so targeted to the recipient that it could no longer meet the definition of spam. So with all of this considered, the quantity of junk messages in your inbox will probably not be cut to zero, but the days of harvesting email addresses with tools obtained from hacking websites and sending mass untargeted emails are coming to an end soon.

ñ     Mobile device use will grow

Mobile devices like smart phones and tablets are no longer reserved only for business people. A lot of individual consumers will be getting them as well. For marketers, this means more people online searching for products that can fill their needs. This is why search engine optimizationcompanies are recommending that their clients not only take appropriate steps to properly optimize their websites for search engines, but also to make them optimized for viewing on mobile devices. This is because search engine use on these devices is expected to grow as well.

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