Google Next Year

My last post was about Google in 2007, so here are some predictions about 2008. Let's see how well I do.

Google will continue their trend towards fewer major product releases and more updates to existing products. They'll finally release Knols, and it will be serious competition for Wikipedia. It will also cause copyright nightmares, since some users will be swiping content to create Knols, and some Knol creators will be victims of other people's intellectual copyright theft.

Google will bid in the FCC spectrum auction, and they'll win a small chunk of spectrum at an exorbitant cost. The idea of Google competition will drive down the price of cell phone usage for consumers, but it will also generate more mergers in the telecom industry.

Android will become a significant platform for cell phones. It will erode Windows CE's slipping popularity as a cell phone platform, and Apple and RIM will face significant competition in the market.

YouTube will face competition from HULU, but it will be too little, too late. TV shows will become increasingly less relevant as users fill in the gap created by the Writer's Strike with content from YouTube.

Meanwhile, YouTube will perfect inVideo ads, and the quality of content will rise as users discover that it pays to be clever. Google will continue to make it more difficult to upload copyright infringing material, and the Google-Viacom lawsuit will still be ongoing.

Ok, that's all I have for now. Leave a comment if you've got a prediction.