Predictions for 2018

1. Google CPC's will continue to climb. Google ad revenue will increase proportionately.
2. Google will purchase a Wireless provider (I guess TMobile) to use as a club over rogue antiNN ISP's.
3. Bitcoin will be $20k by end of 2018 (after falling to 10k early on)
4. VPN services will continue to proliferate. I bet Google/Apple/Amazon/Microsoft all start one.
5. The arrival of 5G will mark the worst year for old guard ISP's in their history. (Let the *real* cord cutting will commence)

I predict in 2018 Webmaster World will see insanely long threads about Google Updates and Adsense earnings.

1. Adsense earnings will continue to fall causing more pain for publishers, resulting in a thinning of the herd.
   
2. "Service-worker" will continue to be a work in progress in Safari, thus draining any potential for the technology to disrupt the status-quo of app vs. web eco system.
   
3. Bitcoin will continue to see its extreme variability thus rendering it about as useful as on-line poker for making transactions. Meanwhile other forces will begin to use the blockchain technology to create other financial products.
   
4. JS in browser (client-side) Bitcoin miners will begin to emerge as means of monetizing websites and apps.
   
5. 5G will go nowhere but be talked about a lot.
   
6. Net Neutrality will go nowhere but be fought over in the courts.
   
7. The Lego Mindstorms kit I bought my kids for Christmas will go unused by them, but I will use it extensively to procrastinate from doing the many import and/or large site upgrades that are needed in 2018!
   

1. Angst and teeth gnashing
2. Pulling hair
3. Why me?
4. Ulcers

Other than the above, pretty much like any other year!

5. We shall survive!

1. SEO will continue it's journey toward becoming an object lesson.

2. AdSense revenues will begin to stabilize because of Chrome ad blocking. Whether it trends up or down after that remains for 2019 to see.

3. Hilltop!

1. Europe to talk a lot about online privacy - but all hot air
   
2. Other countries to follow the Chineses (restrictive) model
   
3. Censorship by the Social Media Companies becomes a hot potato
   

AI will evolve further from being single purposed toward performing multi functions with predictive learning.

We could see more of a backlash against the big companies, and I predict that the smaller, niche sectors could start to make a comeback. Savvy marketers will already know that giving away your life history and discussions on large sites is a risk. Specialist forums could see a resurgence.

I agree about 5G: Although it's been ratified, I think it's far too early for it to make an impact for 2018, and probably (for big cities) 2019 and beyond.

e-mail spam will continue.

Identity fraud will move to a new level with the huge data thefts that took place in 2017 and earlier. It takes time for the resource to get out there and to be abused. Keep a close eye on unusual activities and move swiftly to put a stop to them.

I predict that Google will keep improving and penalising black hat SEO techniques in more websites.

X's market data and Y's Browser (or Y's Analytics) data will collide over the reported Market Share attributed to Z / SNEE.
X will be mortally injured in this battle, and Z revealed to be a non-player, ceases SNEE overnight.
Once the battle begins, the information uncovered regarding Z's dist and click partners, X's tactics and heretofore unknown relationship with Z, and even Y's reluctance to reveal its own true market share (yes, they knew), will be 2018's #*$! storm of the year.
So XYZ, PDQ.
:-)

Amazon Echo will make huge inroads into making many more websites redundant.

Progressive Web Apps begin to truly take off on mobile.

Mobile first SERPS will become a reality and throw us some real unexpected wobblies.

It will turn out that TEXT LINK ADS is the only way to win in Google... LMAO just kidding..

The same trend will continue, brands will keep dominating and Google will become more and more like the Yellow Pages....

Amazon will buy Target

1) Content curation will become more important, with more individuals taking ownership of curation and understanding the value of doing so. It could become a solution to (or a reaction to) the toxicity that is prevalent on social media / Youtube / etc. Possibly a flurry in startups / acquisitions around this area. Youtube channels, Facebook groups, Twitter lists are a sloppy solution to an increasing problem.

2) "Influencer" may actually become a more mainstream job outside of celebrity-esque areas. SEOs have basically done this for years (different approach, different reasons, but basically using specific skills to carve out a niche). The ability to do so (and the rewards for doing so), will become more accessible.

3) Something will be done about online abuse (if not point #1). As 2017 came to a close, there were already some moves in this direction. There's an increasing number of people quitting Twitter, etc due to the abuse they receive. Think Penguin / Panda for social media. The volume of fake accounts, bots, abusers, etc is getting out of control.

4) Either the big social media platforms or a start up will introduce an individual verification process ala Google Local. It will be fraught with privacy concerns.

5) Google & Amazon will make further moves into the entertainment industry, particularly games. Possibly via studio acquisitions or even launching a Steam competitor. Big money, digital products, space in the industry for a platform that more effectively puts products in front of the right consumers.

6) Voice search will become more important and we'll see further voice integrations with non mobile devices.

7) Someone will be murdered by their hacked sex robot.

1.) Bitcoin will drop the slowly increase probably reaching a new record in 2018. People will lose out on altcoins because they are becoming increasingly difficult to exchange for "real" money.

2.) Mobile vs desktop usage will be close to 80/20 mostly mobile.

3.) Facebook will add a web browser to their App so that people can explore external content whilst still remaining within the "safe" recognisable layout of the FB App.

4.) Google will make a real push to get Youtube TV into the mainstream.

Mack.

I'll add that Google and Amazon's speakers will become far more mainstream, and voice search and answers will become more popular this year. It'll become greater competition to mobile search, but less so to desktop.

I'm already seeing this -> more and more decline in:

- website earnings
- website-advertising-effectiveness
- website-advertising-performance

Unless you move on FB or Whatsapp. Why? more people using their cell phone for communications only, not for webbrowsing. Companies are offering very cheap social network packages with access only to FB and Whatsapp, a lot of people going for the cheap and so not being able to visit a website, instead they get unlimited traffic access to FB and Whatsapp. The result is people who will never visit your site, or will never see your ads on a website, and if they see your ad on FB... they still can't visit anything outside that ecosystem. Some packages offer some MBs for browsing but it is very little.

Remember internet radio? lots of people moved to X and Z service tied to their cellphone companies where they provide "free unlimited access" so no more real internet radio on cell phones, what for? if you have free music access to another option?.

Dumb and dumber customers. It took me a bit to get this, a lot of people see ads but have no clue on the full information because they can't actually visit the sites or worse, a lot of people got lazy and shorter attention span, it's sad to see lots of humans failing to read. I turned off many contact forms on site/pages because people are now only reading the title. I have contacts using social media to promote their businesses and they are getting nuts dealing with people asking the dumbest questions (human stupidity is... growing).

People will still obsess about "monthly Google updates" and keyword rankings.

@EditorialGuy How is that a prediction? You are just stating the obvious. It's a given!

Companies are offering very cheap social network packages with access only to FB and Whatsapp, a lot of people going for the cheap and so not being able to visit a website

That varies at lot from country to country. In countries with net neutrality it is not allowed. Of course there is shortly going to be (and important) one less of those.

Apps have a similar effect, as they direct people to sites they use frequently, AND, social media companies act as gatekeepers.

a lot of people got lazy and shorter attention span

Oh yes. They just read the title, as you said, and read the pictures.

Oh, my predication. Data breaches and hacks get even worse. We have a very high probability of something that will be the worst ever: a fraud-enabling hack at a big, or a large scale credit card fraud, a really important confidential data breach, or similar. Why? Because people are so complacent about security. There are proven attacks on credit cards that are not being fixed, there is unbelievable carelessness by people running big systems (e.g. Tesco Bank not updating software or the Equifax breach), and the bad guys are only beginning to explore the attack surface (wait until we have exploits of CPU weaknesses and Intels extra builtin OS in the wild).

I predict that I will no longer be moderator at WW.

lawman:

I predict that I will no longer be moderator at WW.

Here's hoping that doesn't come true!

I predict that I will no longer be moderator at WW.

Any relation to this post [webmasterworld.com] from the beginning of 2017?

Yes lucy24. I stopped accepting new clients the end of September and hope to have most of my cases taken care of by the end of the first quarter of this year. Then it'll be time to get my knees fixed (and probably hips too). I'm simplifying my life. The prediction regarding being moderator - well that's a done deal too. I'll be getting my moderator severance pay in less than a week.

The prediction regarding being moderator - well that's a done deal too.

Well then good luck with whatever comes next.

Censorship by the Social Media Companies is already happening, and has been happening for a few years now - I predict that It will be mainstrean and accepted.

Amazon will settle into either Toronto or Austin, thus kicking the dust off of it's heals from the hostile business environment in Seattle

Web Apps will be forced to lower their data footprint across all devices

More website owners will turn to static regional/local advertising as the proliferation of adblockers continues

GDPR (May 2018) will have a massive impact and will change the web forever.

Small online businesses in the EU will struggle to comply with its demands and live in fear of investigations / fines.

Small online businesses outside the EU - those that know about it, anyway - will decide that complying with GDPR is too much hassle and will simply block EU visitors from their websites.

I predict that the growth of mobile will obscure the fact that desktop and laptop users are still very, very important.

On our information site, for example, mobile has grown enormously in the last several years, but desktop is hanging in there, too--and, just as important, desktop continues to generate the bulk of our revenue. I suspect we aren't alone.