B.L. Ochman came out with her predictions for 2008 today - B.L. Ochman's 2008 Online Marketing Predictions: Mobile, Subscriptions, Collaboration Rule and here's some that stood out to me.  I thought it also made sense to look at others that are out there so far.   I came out with my own 2008 predictions last week but found my mind too cluttered to come up with much about the Web - mine were mostly political, at this point - Predictions for 2008 and how I did with my 2007 Predictions.

Here's B.L's predictions I agree with:

"…Social networks will be the key driver of brand success as consumers increasingly trust each other’s opinions and distrust advertising and corporate crap. Dear CMOs and CFOs, The Cluetrain is not science fiction."

"…Special lighting for web cam broadcasts on Seesmic will be the must-have product of the moment. That's because nobody likes looking like a ghoul. :>)"

As an occasional user of Seesmic - I guess B.L. Ochman has a point.   How about something for the sound too - mine is always better if I wear a headset but I don't see everyone wearing headsets in Seesmic videos - so how do they do it?

"…The Internet will swing the 2008 election with its candidate of choice, who won't be one of the ones already in the running. MoveOn.org, which already has a huge membership base, will team up with Unity08 to choose which will come out in big enough numbers to swing the election."

I kinda agree, except I don't think there's much room yet for a candidate that's not running by now - Al Gore?   He doesn't seem all that interested - but if he is going to run, he needs to put his hat in the ring by March 2008.

Then again, an independent candidate that is not Democratic or Republican is going to difficult to get anything passed - whoever would run and win from an independent position much be so charismatic that most want to follow - I'm not sure even Al Gore fits that bill - but I guess if glacier brakes off from the Antarctic and floats into New York Harbor next year - Al Gore would be a shoe in - everyone would want to follow his lead then.   So if we're in the position of electing an independent - we'll need the attendant "crisis" to go with it - something world changing.

"… Mobile Rules - iPhones and similar devices that deliver true mobile internet access will replace laptops that everyone hates to carry no matter how light they pretend they are before you add the battery, etc.."

I think this is an easy prediction to support - it's clearly going in that direction with the iPhone and iPod Touch - but I think there needs to be a good Keyboard like the Sony 10mm Thin Organic TV display that's currently in development.

Perhaps a portable, fold able version of the Razer ProType Programmable Multimedia Keyboard with iPod dock along with improvements in the iPhone interface would do it - push us in to the entirely mobile world.

Ok, what about other predictions for 2008, so far:

BusinessWeek's Innovation Predictions 2008  don't seem so innovative or far fetched:

"… whole realm of social networking to change in 2008. Just when you "got it" and thought it was all about open, personal, and casual online relationships, social media will morph into another ecosystem—one with lots of gates."

Read/WriteWeb has a whole bunch of 2008 Predictions from several writers from that blog, the most notable being:

"…Twitter will be acquired."

"…Most ad networks will start producing their own content to advertise against; and some content companies today will get acquired by ad networks."

I've predicted that too…. that's why I'm mentioning it.

"… Mobile web usage will be a big story in 2008. It's already big in many parts of the world; and Westerners are about to get hooked. With new mobile devices that makes web surfing less painful, people will be more and more connected away from their computers."

Mobile usage going up - becoming more powerful - that's an idea I hear alot, so I give it more weight.

"…Google will really start looking vulnerable in 2008. While the 'one trick pony' comment by Steve Ballmer drew sarcastic responses, this will begin to look prophetic. While they'll maintain market share in the search industry, the lack of traction in any other of their other initiatives will start to cause frustration. Plus, they will increasingly be perceived as the 'evil' company in many of these new initiatives. "

Actually, that began in 2007 - and was talked about even before - it started with the DoubleClick acquisition - once Google went after DoubleClick - Google crossed the line and left being a Search Engine to become something else, sorta like Big Brother.  

The one belief powering Google is they believe they can do anything they choose better than anyone else - shatter that idea, and Google starts falling apart. The first defense for Google is buying up and owning companies and ideas that perform better than what they could do themselves - which is, of course, what they did with products like FeedBurner and DoubleClick.   

However, if they run into something they can't build as well and can't buy it (because someone else buys it first) ……Google's strategy begins to crack wide open.  Perhaps 2008 will see examples of that more often.

As far as Real Estate goes  - the Top  10 Real Estate Predictions for 2008 call for more of the same - declining values of Real Estate.

"…Median home prices will continue to fall in softened markets. They won't take a nose dive; though, they will float, ever-so-gently like a feather, slipping left to right and closer and closer to a landing spot."

That's a modest prediction - Paul Krugman in Charting the housing bubble

"….This chart shows the ratio of housing prices from OFHEO to the “owners’ implicit rent” from the BLS. Both are index numbers, 1982 = 1. This is more or less equivalent to the price-earnings ratio for stocks.

The red line shows the ratio for the United States as a whole. The blue line shows the ratio for the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

What the chart shows
is that this decade we’ve had a national housing bubble that is somewhat bigger than the bubble in LA in the late 1980s — a bubble that was followed by a 20% drop in nominal home prices, and a 30% fall in real prices. In LA itself, and in a number of other metropolitan areas, the bubble has been on a scale completely unprecedented in modern experience."

Paul Krugman's chart suggests that where Real Estate will fall - it will fall between 20%-30% putting many homeowners in "Negative Equity" - meaning they will owe far more on their mortgages than the houses are actually worth in 2008.  2008 will be a tough year for many homeowners.

Here's a video of Paul Krugman giving a talk at Google: