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Updated: January 10th, 2010

2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year of significant change.  The following trends include my predictions about how tech will improve over the next twelve months.

The 10 topics below are generating buzz right now on Twitter and across the social sphere of the web.  It is safe to say that these topics will continue to develop as news surrounding these topics are released during the months to come.

1. Tablet computers will receive plenty of attention once Apple releases the tablet device, sometime during 2010.  Amazon will perhaps respond with a full color kindle.  Amazon sold more ebooks for the Kindle than real books during Christmas this year.

Competitors such as the joojoo are swarming the market with a cheaper alternative.  I would not buy the joojoo because it was supposed to be called the TechCrunch CrunchPad, but the deal fell through.  Now TechCrunch founder Arrington is suing the founder of joojoo.

2. The Apple iPhone community is continuing to thrive, but expect tough and serious developments driven by intense mobile market competition.

Apple is thriving in the mobile market and eating into the immense smart phone market share held by the Canadian technology company RIM. A new Apple phone might be released mid-year.

If the iPhone platform receives a software update it will be able to better compete with emerging competitors like the Andriod Platform and WebOS. The last time a new iPhone was released, the iPhone 3GS, it happened at around the same time the new OS was released as well. iPhone OS 3.0 features the much sought after cut, copy, and paste features.

Swipe keyboard technology should be improved in 2010 and continue to make more of a mark on the mobile market. I am eager to test swipe keyboard technology and I hope a swipe keyboard app is released for the iPhone.

3. Twitter will almost certainly continue to increase in size in 2010. Currently there are about 18,000,000 Twitter users who tweet at least once a month. I am predicting that Twitter will double in size to 36,000,000+ users by the end of 2010.

4. Barack Obama will leverage the social media revolution to create even more significant change in the world than he already has. In 2009 he was just getting warmed up.

5. Twitter is poised to change the way we engage with the Olympics and celebrate Olympians.  Vancouver 2010 will be the most tweeted about Olympic games ever, due to Twitters recent growth. If you are interested in the 2010 games check out my Vancouver 2010 Twitter list.

6. Facebook will reach 400,000,000 users and announce its IPO, making facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg very rich.

7. Ashton Kutcher @aplusk will be dethroned as king of Twitter by Ellen Degeneres @theellenshow or Britney Spears @britneyspears.

8. MG Siegler thinks Geo location will become an increasing factor in 2010 on the web, and I agree. Twitter will become more financially viable as they offer enhanced super tweets featuring geo information. Foursquare and gowalla will continue to improve and receive millions in investment.

9. Google increases their dominance of the Internet with Wave becoming more mainstream, search becomes more realtime, and the Chrome browser continuing to increase market share.

10. The Social Network Friendfeed might make a resurgence after some technological improvements improve the platform. Since friendfeed was purchased by facebook it seems to me that it would make more sense for friendfeed developers to focus on the development of the platform with the largest user base, facebook, instead.

In the past friendfeed has been a platform where innovation can be tested, and if it was sucessful it was often adopted by platforms such as facebook and twitter.  After the “like” feature was implemented on friendfeed, and was clearly a success, facebook integrated it and now millions of facebook users can “like” billions of pictures.

Friendfeed announced real time search and linked #hashtags just days before Twitter implemented these same improvements.  Friendfeed offers the useful service of syndicating rss feeds into a common lifestream of events from the feeds of different account you use across the web.  As people on the web use more socially integrated sites a greater demand for this feed syndication will emerge.  Friendfeed adds value for socially minded people who are interested in easily keeping track of their conversations online, and I will be interested in seeing if the technology already implemented on friendfeed can be integrated into facebook.

For more of my thoughts about 2010 Tech Trends check out this awesome post: 10 Trending Topics worth Tweeting About in 2010.

Updated: Febuary 1st, 2010

I recently purchased a few new domains and I set them up with Google apps powered email accounts.  Now I have a custom branded email address that ends in: @garinkilpatrick.com, so feel free to email me, and the message will go directly to my cell.

By following the steps in this blog post you will be able to set yourself up with yourname@yourdomain.com and access your custom google powered email account from anywhere with the Internet.

According to Google over two million businesses already run Google apps.  Google offers two versions of Google apps; standard edition or premiere edition.  Premiere edition is free for schools, costs $50 USD for everyone else, and comes equipped with 50 times as much email storage as standard edition.  Premiere has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7 customer service, and a 30 day free trial.  Standard edition is free and offers full Gmail functionality.

Google apps is perfect for businesses since it offers up to 25 unique user accounts per domain.  In addition to Gmail powered email google apps also has online “apps” that allow for document and spreadsheet storage, collaboration, and privacy controls.

Google also has mobile email apps for almost every kind of phone, including Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and more.

To get started installing Google Apps you will need to tell Google what your domain is.  If you do not own a domain yet simply go to GoDaddy and buy yourself one.  GoDaddy is the worlds largest registrar and they have competitive prices and great customer service.  If you are going to buy a domain from GoDaddy Google a search for Godaddy Coupons first and you should be able to find a coupon code.

Next Google will want you to:

• Upload a file to your domain to prove you own it.

This part can be expensive if you do not yet have a hosting account.  I pay for a deluxe hosting account already so if you would like me to host Google Apps file for you for a great price just contact me and I’ll be happy to help.

• The Google apps file that must be hosted for apps to work is an .html file that must be named googlehostedservice.html. Google will tell you a specific hexadecimal key that you must copy/paste into the body of the file.

• After you upload googlehostedservice.html to your domain to verify your ownership Google will allow you login to Google apps.

At this point you will be able to access your new domain email accounts by logging into:

http://www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com

For example here is one of my login screens:

http://www.google.com/a/garin.ca

• After you log into apps you will need to “Activate” the email app.

• Now you will need to change the GoDaddy mail exchange (MX) records for your domain so that emails sent to your domain will redirect from GoDaddy to Google Apps.  Don’t worry, Google offers step by step instructions about how to make these changes, it just takes a bit of time and patience to follow the steps.

Once the mail exchange records are changed it takes between 24-48 hours for the initial connection to register, but once the connection is made you will be ready to enjoy Google apps!

With Google apps you can enjoy the convenience of Google powered custom branded email addresses that you can access from anywhere.

If you have any troubles with the install process feel free to contact me and I will make sure to get back to you and help you out.

Updated: October 19th, 2009

By: Garin Kilpatrick

The Search Engine has proven itself to be the most useful tool on the Internet. The ability to search well online means finding the best resources. For me the ability to see a Website as I search is a serious asset.  Google Preview is the best way I have to visually improve searching online.  At this years TechCrunch50 I saw a demo of the soon to be released Bing visual search and I was very impressed; check out this video I bet you will be too.  Leave your thoughts about the future of visually searching the web in the comments below!

1. Google Preview

Google Preview is an Add-on for the Firefox Web Browser that allows you to view a preview image while searching, allowing you to view a thumbnail image of a website before you visit it.  As you can see in the picture below this thumbnail is quite small, but it does the job and loads very fast.

For Google Preview or any of the best firefox add-ons to work you must first download the Web Browser Firefox. Once you have Firefox installed on your PC or Mac not only will you have access to Google Preview but you will also have access to thousands of other free add-ons for Firefox.

Google Preview has 6,924,000 downloads and this is significant because there are millions of people who have already built the preview image database. This means that load times for searching remain fast despite the images.

2. Search Cube

Search Cube is the most entertaining and visually impressive preview search engine. Despite being cool, Search Cube is awkward to use, takes a minute to learn, and mixes image and website results together on the same cube.

Search Cube is good for showing off your Search, but that’s about it.

3. Quintura

At first glance I was skeptical of Quintura, but after I used it my opinion changed.  Quintura is less focused on showing you what a site looks like and more focused on giving you an interactive way to find what you are searching for.

Note the word cloud to the left of the image above.  By hovering over a word in this cloud quintura re-queries the search and provides new results to the right.  This is an interesting concept that makes pagination more fluid and I would not be surprised if this technology is snapped up and polished by Google. Quintura has serious potential, but is lacking a slick and cool design.

Feedback

Do you know of any different cool or useful ways to search the web? Drop a thought about Searching The Web with Previews in the comments below!