Predictions/Wishlist for 2009
As the year ends its important to take a little time to reflect on the things we've learned, seen and experienced. A year is a long time in the rapidly developing world of technology and we have many things to look forward to in 2009. Here's a few little predictions for the coming year, feel free to chip in with a few of your own! In a year's time I'll revisit this post and see what predictions came true, and see if there were any big things we totally missed!
This is perhaps more a wish list than a set of predictions, but they are all things I can certainly see happening!
The complete death of Internet Explorer 6
IE6 is still the thorn in every modern website's foot and in the next year I can see more and more companies completely dropping support for this now ancient browser. With the release of IE8 near I cannot see any web developer in their right mind taking the effort to support three versions of the same browser.
Spotify to go main stream
I love Spotify - its the first Internet music app to have got the balance of DRM and customer freedom just right. Its still in beta, you still need an invite to use it. Next year this thing is going to explode, creating real problems for last.fm and iTunes. I can see Spotify making its way in to mobile apps too, perhaps even the iPhone (if Apple's interests were not in iTunes)
News will become a blog
More and more companies are changing the name of their traditional "news" sections to a "blog". The difference? Blogs engage, news simply broadcasts. As more and more traditional companies clock on to this we'll notice a rapid shift from companies using their sites to simply sell their services to using the sites to engage their market. I predict over the next year the number of sites with a news section will be out-numbered by those with a blog.
More Django growth in social apps
Ok ok, of course I expect to see Django grow! But there is a little bit of reasoning behind this prediction. This time last year few people had really heard of Django, especially when compared to something such as Rails. Now everyone has heard of Django - but have you heard of Pinax? Pinax is going to blow Rails away when it comes to developing social web apps.
As more main stream hosting providers improve their support of Django sites I think its more than likely we'll see some of the typical Rails crowd no longer being able to justify poor technical performance with the excuse of "its easy to develop in". If you are still using Rails and have an interest in developing social apps, go check out Pinax before I get a chance to say "I told you so".
Internet gaming to improve
The gaming industry is still pretty much the same as it always has been. You buy a game, you install it on your hard drive and you play it. Although MMOs have slightly changed this approach a new kind of gaming is on the rise. It lives inside of Facebook apps and other social networks and it is usually powered by Flash.
The games are still very primitive, perhaps most likened to the early days of 2D arcade gaming. I'm expecting some bright spark to take browser based gaming to a new level - providing feature-rich gaming and advanced graphics through the browser. The key here will be making the games hugely multiplayer and accessible.