I realize that we’re already well into the second week of 2007, but I was reading through everyone’s reelections of 2006 and had a few of my own, so I thought I’d lay them out here…

To me, 2006 was the year that…

Blogging and Podcasting Became Full-Time Jobs
People like Mike Arrington (TechCrunch), Om Malik (GigaOm), Rob Walch (Podcast 411), Michael Geohegan (GigaVox) and others, all had good, respectable jobs. Yet, they still walked away from their “day jobs” to pursue blogging/podcasting -related businesses full time…And some of these guys are doing pretty dang well, I might add (see: Blogging for Dollars). Also, podcasts like RocketBoom, FrenchMaidTV, and 88Slide, and blogs like TechCrunch, all developed lucrative businesses around their podcasts/blogs as well.

Second Life Became Mainstream
Although the 3D virtual world of Second Life (SL) has been around since about 2002, it was only in 2006 that it suddenly hit a tipping point and registered more than one million users (and growing). More importantly, however, 2006 saw SL become: (1) a primary source of income for some folks (2) a novel setting for some serious discussions/meetings; (3) a new venue for performances by big names like Suzanne Vega, U2, Duran Duran, etc.; and (4) the hip and trendy marketing/PR grounds for the likes of American Apparel, Dell, IBM, etc.

Macs Became Cool Among Techies
Up till recently, Macs were often relegated to a small percentage share—mainly among designers and graphic/visual artists. However, something happened in 2006 that turned that around…All of a sudden, where you once saw lots of Dells, Thinkpads, and Vaios you now see the distinct, sleek, white/silver/black form of a Mac popping up even among the most technical of crowds. The line-up of techy folks that I know of who use a Mac include: Joe Kraus, Mike Arrington, Om Malik, Michael Geohegan, Kathleen Gilroy, Chris Brogan, etc, etc. And if you watched the “Google: Behind the Screen” video, you’ll notice that there’s plenty of Macs even on the engineer-rich Google campus.

IMHO, I believe that part of what really pushed the popularity of the Macs among technophiles was the introduction of Intel chips and a great little program called Parallels, which let’s you run Windows OS simultaneously (as opposed to Boot Camp’s ability to only boot up in one or the other). Moreover, the increase in security flaws and viruses that plague Microsoft OS systems doesn’t help the PC camp either.

BTW, I’m seriously thinking of succumbing to this trend soon

Investors Spent Crazy Amounts of Money on Web Technologies (Once Again)
MySpace ($580million). Skype ($2.6 billion). YouTube ($1.65 billion). Need I say more? Okay, I realize that MySpace and Skype were in 2005, but they were in the latter half of the year and led up to the crazy buying spree of 2006 for the likes of: YouTube, Grouper ($65 million), and so on. Who will be next? Digg (said to be worth at least $200 million)? Facebook (rumored to be holding out for > $1 billion)? This is probably the most “adventurous” that investors have been since the last bubble burst.

Web 2.0 Ruled the Web
Just click here & here—‘nuff said.

Wow, what a year. I’m looking forward to what’s in store for 2007 and hope to spend more time blogging, podcasting, and so on. One thing’s for sure, just looking at some of the new announcements from CES and MacWorld, I can see that we’re in for a great year ahead with LOTS more ETech and Trends!!!