Top 10 Technology Predictions for 2007

Submitted by Patrick Grote on Sun, 12/31/2006 - 9:49am.

I am not very good about nailing predictions, but I like to try anyway. Here are my top 10 technology predictions for 2007.

1) Google stock will finish the year under $200. Google's dominance has come at a price to their users. People will begin to migrate away from Google to other services, which will lead to a hit in earnings.

2) Microsoft will buy Digg. Microsoft needs to add eyeballs to their internet sites and Digg is the last big player to remain independent. Yes, they just took more funding, but Microsoft will open the wallet and pay. Even if Microsoft doesn't buy Digg, someone will.

3) Amazon S3 support will come to Drupal. Yeah, this is a personal one, but I have to believe that someone will make this happen.

4) iTunes will see competitors. I don't mean the current crop, but someone new. The success of AllofMP3 has shown that if music doesn't have DRM people will buy it.

5) Yahoo will be bought. AOL or Microsoft will buy Yahoo. This one is a shame, since Yahoo is a great company void of leadership.

6) Firefox will increase it's share to 20% of the market. This will be across all segments.

7) Worm will cripple the internet. We haven't had a nasty worm in a couple of years, so we're overdue. Yes, this one will be Windows based and it will cause significant downtime for people.

8) Dave Winer will still be blogging. The father of RSS claims he will quit blogging, but I think he'll be blogging just as much come this time next year. This is a good thing.

9) Apple will release a TV box. Everything thinks they are working on one, but when they release it the market will yawn. It won't take in the marketplace and will be the first serious mistake Apple has made in a long time.

10) Google will suffer a major outage. This is probably the most outrageous, but I don't think Google is ahead of the scaling curve and they will experience technical difficulties this year.

What do you think about these predictions?