Predictions are fun. They give you freedom to be as nonsensical as you want. And they’re so much fun that we do them every year. But before looking forward, it’s entertaining to look back at the stuff that came before. At the dawn of 2008, we predicted:
- Recession – This was a pretty easy one, but few people expected it to be as bad as it was. And next year isn’t looking to be much better. Save us,
Obi WonObama. - Lots of mergers and acquisitions – A good number of sites were gobbled up. Jobing nabbed WorkMetro and the kids at Trovix probably had the best year in recent memory, but we’re likely to see more in ‘09 as more sites hit the skids and discounts run amok for potential buyers.
- Google Base content will show-up in Web search results – Not so much. Poor Google Base. So much potential, yet so much neglect from the smartypants in Mountain View. Rest in peace.
- Dems takeover The House – Did I really get political last year? Well, it was an election year. And boy, did it get bad for the GOP. Here’s hoping the Dems get it at least sorta right.
- Kijiji becomes part of the conversation – In the U.S. at least, eBay’s Kijiji is getting some decent traffic according to Compete, but they’re hardly on the tips of many recruiters’ tongues. Oodle, capturing partnerships with MySpace and Facebook, was the bigger story in the all-things-classifieds space.
- Human-controlled search results were going to fail – Search engines like Mahalo certainly haven’t failed, per se, but I’m not sure anyone at Google is shaking in their boots. Mahalo Answers is something to keep an eye on going into next year (Yahoo! Answers is still best-in-class today), and it may find a nice niche among a certain segment of searchers. Amusingly, it was Cuil, a site willing to go head-to-head with Google that was the biggest bust of the year. Be glad that’s one investment you didn’t make.
- Pot o’ Gold eludes Facebook – I love Facebook as much as just about everyone else I know. Problem is they didn’t find the slam dunk revenue generator in 2008 they had hoped for. Their valuation dropped big-time as a result. I think they’re on the right track though. Here’s hoping Facebook continues to make us believe in ‘09.
- Podcasts strike back – Not quite. Everyone’s getting an iPhone and video will remain hot, but podcasts aren’t particularly top of mind or near their height of curiosity, circa 2004. That said, our own subscriber base via iTunes outnumbers our on-site listeners.
- Mobile heats-up – The numbers don’t lie. With mobile devices outnumbering even televisions worldwide to the tune of 2-to-1 and Internet connections 4-to-1, mobile has immense reach to connect marketers to consumers. So, did it heat-up in 2008? Yes. Will it be hot in 2009? Smart money says yes.
- Wordpress plugin for job search is created – Didn’t happen as far as I know. But it should.
- Conference overkill – There are arguably too many recruiting conferences. One of favorite peeps, Jason Davis, launched his own in RecruitFest. And people still keep going to them. Is that overkill? Guess not.
Honorable mentions included the death of video resumes and an Ohio State National Title (boy, did I get that one wrong!). For more from 2008, click here. Overall, I guess we didn’t do too badly on the predictions. Guessing what’s to come in 2009 should be fun as well … although somewhat depressing.
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December 30th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Let’s try our own 2009 predictions for Joel:
Cheezhead.com is sued for slander.
The economy has a sudden change of heart and the Dow hits 10,500 by February.
RecruitingBlogs buys ERE.
Jobster becomes the largest IPO in history.
iPhones go from $99 at Wal-Mart to free with a 2 year commitment.
Any other crystal ball readers out there? Happy New Years Joel!
December 31st, 2008 at 7:58 am
The recession though inevitable, hit the world economy like a ton of bricks. At a time like this you’ll find a lot of economists who’ll claim ‘I told you so!’