For our 2007 Trend Review we choose few “best chosen” categories and suggested our best nominees. For those we examined “You” – writing on blogs and forums. We checked Your searches and votes and presented evidence for the trends. Our final conclusion is based on our personal insights. Our Trends 2007 tools were: search engines trends, buzz on blogs, forums, surveys, mainstream media and popular blogs. And of course – previous TrendsSpotting findings.

1. Product of the year:

The competition was lopsided numero – uno iPhone versus “No One”. Though, we were considering: Nintendo wii ,MS Xbox, playstation III, Guitar Hero. Our appetite for iPhone seems incessant Google zeitgeist suggests iPhone is the No 1 – fastest rising global and in US. Mainstream Media was voracious about apples much hyped gadget. To much of iPhones accolade Time declared it as “The invention of the year”.Blogpulse (see graph 1) suggests iPhone was indeed a news generator. However wii seems to be starring in search and in forum discussions (see graph 2) while just before Christmas wii demand skyrocketed & Nintendo’s inability to match that ,brought it much to our discussion.

graph 1: blog citations: iPhone vs. wii vs. xbox (by BlogPulse)

graph 2: forum citations: iPhone vs. wii vs. xbox (by Omgili)

Can you believe when the initial survey indicated that only 3% were highly interested in purchasing iPhone for the price of $499 , Apple had to cut it down to $399, just 68 days after product launch?

Talys Say: iPhone will make it to history pages.
Apurbas Say: xbox.

2. Disappointment of the year:

We think the two close contestants were rumor (or news) multiplied “Google Phone” buzz versus virtual world bubble “Second Life”. While Google secret sauce Android added much to the Gphone buzz ,whereas kids & their alternative identity, “Second Life” stalled mostly due to operational issues.

For Google Phone- The seasonal peak in Google Phone searches (see graph 3) & blog citations (see graph 4) are true reflection of how quickly we lost out interest in it.

For Second Life: 2007 was the breaking point for Second Life (see graph 5 for traffic, graph 4 for blog citations).

graph 3: Google search: second life vs. Google phone vs. android (by Google Trends)
graph 4: blog citations: second life vs. google phone vs. android (by BlogPulse)
graph 5: 2007 traffic estimation for secondlife (by alexa)
Our say: Hard to say – While Google Phone brought publishers to lose faith in Google (so much discussion over nothing) Second Life holds major marketers on hold.

3. Issue of the year:

The grass looks much greener in 2007..at least Yahoo !s Top 10 environmental query suggests so. Interesting. .Global warming – is that a Global issue or was it Angela Merkel’s political agenda to G8 summit? Why only people of 3 countries are proactively demanding from their governments to take responsibility ? On the contrary “United States election” made a loud noise in almost all main stream media across the globe.

Our say: Google Trends seems much warmer on “Global warming” over “United states election” (see graph 6).

graph 6: Google search: global warming vs. United States election (by Google Trends)

Taly’s say: Global warming – A trend with ideology which makes us better people.

Apurba’s say: Are we loosing faith in government & institutions? None of the presidential candidates [except Hillary Clinton & Obama] registered great buzz.CIA, FBI are alleged to edit Wikipedia .

4. Book of the year:
“He who lends a book is an idiot. He who returns the book is more of an idiot” –Arab Proverb.

Fun apart – 2007 we seemed enchanted by “potter mania”- on the release day itself Harry Potter was hot not less than iPhone

It would be a fallacy to compare Harry Potter’s 7th book [25-30 M sold & most talked in Shelfari ] with other notable Amazon Best sellers specially Elizabeth Gilbert’s travel memoir “Eat ,Pray ,Love” [ 4 M sold]. It created outstanding online buzz post the Oprah Winfrey Show featured author Gilbert on two episodes on Oct 2007.

See Harry Potter versus Amazon Best seller (graph 7 – blog citations, graph 8 – forum discussions)

graph 7: blog citations: Harry Potter vs. Eat Pray Love (by BlogPulse)

graph 8: forum discussions: Harry Potter vs. Eat Pray Love (by Omgili)

Our say: no match!

5. Band of the year:

Some naughty searched forMusic Is My Boyfriend ..lol. Wondering what’s in her head ..Radiohead?
Even a cursory look into Ask Top searches & Google zeitgeist would suggest Music & videos has become an integral part of our daily lives.
While Radiohead rewrote the rules of music industry by web only distribution & “Name your price” for their new album In Rainbows , whereas the surviving members of legendary rock group Led Zeppelin rocked music lovers with a surprise comeback.

However Google Trends seems to have nod its head in favor of Radiohead so are the innumerous blog citations [overstatement !!ok..39,577 Technorati results to be little specific ]& the chartbuster at Lastfm.Talys Say: Radihead for sharing 2.0.
Apurbas Say: Of course Radiohead. Wasn’t that anyway our takeaway from DRM free iTune growth.

6. Social Website of the year:

Check your vitals ..you never know when an Identity Crash awaits you as Facebook Surprise .
Our world seems have obsessed with Facebook & MySpace. Google trends suggest MySpace as the winner with Facebook catching up almost at meteorites pace [did you know Facebook overcomes MySpace in the UK and Canada?] so are the blog citations.

Vox populi declared Facebook as winner of social networking at Webbys .Its again Facebook [over MySpace] nominated for the company of the year in AOL Best and Worst 2007.

graph 9: Google search: Facebook vs. Myspace (by Google Trends).

graph 10: blog citations: Facebook vs. Myspace (by BlogPulse).

Taly’s Say: MySpace- only for not blinking when Facebook came rising up so fast.
Apurba’s Say: Love it or hate it.. its Facebook .Going by stats

• The youngest accounts for a disproportionate amount of the traffic on MySpace and Facebook–and they don’t favor either brand.
• Dual Facebook /MySpace users spent 26 % more time on Facebook (93 minutes per month ) – than did the average Facebook-only users (74 minutes).

7. Country of the year :
The flutter of a butterfly’s wings in China could, in fact, actually effect weather patterns in New York City, thousands of miles away : The Butterfly Effect

Remembering that Japan, the leading country to blog (!) and the one to promise a replacement for the internet , be it Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s recent visit to china or 2008 Beijing Olympics or its burgeoning internet population that will soon overtake US ,the Asian dragon seems fiery. The United states ,China , and Japan are the 3 top guns in today’s internet graph (see graph). Going by blog citations our discussions seemed real hot.

graph 11: Top countries in internet useage (by internetworldstats)

graph 12: blog citations: United States vs. Japan vs. China (by BlogPulse)

Our say: No doubt Asian giants are roaring up take the United States bull by horn.