Web trends for 2009

Here are a few web trends that i think we will see emerge in 2009.

1. Firstly IE6 must die this year right? I’m sure every web developer would be happy to see the backside of IE6. There’s a fairly good reason why as well. IE8 is now in the second phase of public beta, so if all goes well i predict that it should be released at the end of this year, meaning that at least everyone stuck in the past can upgrade to IE7 . Although this isn’t likely as large corporate companies refuse to upgrade.
2. Something that will start to emerge in 2009 but probably not really get going until the later part of the year, is users keeping their details in one place known as data portability, like OpenID centralising your personal information online. We are starting to see many sites like Vimeo and Joost adopt services like Facebook connect and Google friend connect, sites using these services are making it easier and easier for users to interact with their sites. With the current climate of socialmedia being adopted my the  masses this can only increase as the year progresses.
3. We will start to see more of a shift from traditional advertising to more refined search advertising, making products even more relevant to users, as the price of TV, Radio and more traditional forms of print advertising rise advertisers will look to make their budgets stretch.
4. Blogging is still on the rise, 2008 saw more professionals adopt blogging as a way to express their personal views, if you don’t have a blog or micro blog in 2009 you’ll simply be left behind. Twitter has opened the door for micro blogging with the quick 140 character ‘what are you doing’ more and more people are using this as their life stream and a way to communicate global issues.
5. Cloud computing made the headlines a few months back with the Microsoft data center being unveiled. This will be a big part of businesses in 2009 Google and Microsoft battle it out to see who will be the provider to go with. This will probably start to take off but it will probably take 3-5 years to take hold properly.
6. We will see many more Rich user experience sites within the coming year, more and more sites interact like desktop applications, and we are moving away from plain HTML pages to complete flex and flash sites.
7. Local Search will be key in 2009, making products and services more refined and relevant, this will also open up new advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

I’m sure there are many more trends that we’ll see emerging as the year progresses if you have and of your own or think some of mine are wrong, let me know why, below.