Identifying the lateset trends in business is critical to continued growth. There are a number of business trend websites out there and I have found that they come in varying degrees of usefulness, some of which depends on what the end user is looking for. Here is a quick look at some of the trend sites out there:
http://www.trendwatching.com/
This site has a tremendous amount of information in the “Current Briefing” section. In just a few minutes of surfing I found myself reading about the trend of online commerce bleeding over into the offline world. They discussed many sub-trends such as technology that is built to integrate with the web (a camcorder with a one-button youtube upload feature), avatar clothing brought to life and social networking that facilitates meetings, or meetups, for people with similar interests. The catalogue of “Current Briefings” are a wealth of trend topics. This site, however, does not seem to be a great resource if you are looking to research a specific trend or industry. I typed in Travel and Tourism in the search field and I was redirected to google search results that didn’t seem to be too useful. Nevertheless, there appears to be a ton of insightful information on this website and it is evident that they have a vast network of researchers combing society for new and unique trends.
http://www.springwise.com/
I found Springwise to be the most useful trend site overall. For me it was the right combination of generally unique, fringe trend spotting and idea generation combined with the ability to research more specialized areas. I searched under Travel and Tourism and immediately found two trends or innovations that I had not ever heard of. One was Microsoft’s interactive tables that are being tested in some big east coast Sheraton hotel rooms. Essentially, these are large interactive touch screens that provide customized local information to visitors. I can see a need for this technology, but I’m sure it is expensive and at least for the foreseeable future will only be feasible for high-end hotels looking to wow their guests with a flashy technology. Whether or not travelers will jump at this technology is a question, while it is a wealth of information, you can’t take it walking around town with you (Can you print information from these interactive tables? Not sure.). This technology could also provide hotels with another revenue stream, by selling advertisements in some form or another on these interactive tables. Perhaps, that upside could mitigate the cost issue. Only time will tell. I also stumbled upon http://www.simpatigo.com/, a site with interactive wiki-maps powered by google. This site allows the user to add points of interest and descriptions for the benefit of others. This site is new and therefore doesn’t cover a lot of areas, but I can certainly see a real-world application for it, especially for someone walking around a new city with an iphone, looking for something to do or somewhere to eat. Overall, Springwise seemed to be a very useful site.
http://www.pfsk.com/
This site seemed to be less about trends and more about pop culture quirks and fringe products. The interface seemed less formal to me, the homepage appeared to be just a fragmented blog with no overarching theme. However, when I dug a little deeper I found a posting under the Advertising and Branding heading entitled “Selling Lots of Little Media: Micro Sales Add Up”, about http://www.istockphotos.com/ and http://www.shutterstock.com/ which basically lets people upload photos and then sells them at very low prices—photographers get 25-cents every time some downloads one of their photos. This concept would also seem to fall under the category of a “Long Tail” business. Bottomline on PFSK: decent site, but you have to do a little digging to find the value.
http://www.trendhunter.com/
I was not overall impressed with this website. Firstly, it seemed to be so cluttered with iffy pop culture trends that it felt like I was standing in line at the grocery store looking at all of the cover pages of paparazzi magazines. After clicking around a bit, I did find a little more substance and was rewarded with a decent return on my search of Travel and Tourism, in which I found a little information on ecotourism. However, this site doesn’t seem to be too interested in providing real ideas and trends, rather it just seems content getting people to view things—which is a trend in and of itself, so maybe the administrators of this site do know what they are doing.
http://www.ubercool.com/
Upon first glance this site seemed to be another pop culture trend spotter, but as I scrolled down the homepage, I noticed some more substantive articles, including a glance at worldwide wealth and luxury products, the use and implications of LED lighting at the Beijing Olypics opening ceremonies and a look at how the iphone is revolutionizing the mobile phone industry. This site does not seem like one you would go to for specific research (I looked up Travel and Tourism but only found one article of little value), rather it simply seems to be an aggregator of interesting trends and fringe products.
Google Trends
Google trends seems like a valuable way to keep track of what people are searching on the web, but I can’t yet see the practical business value. Even the “How to” article admits that Google Trends isn’t necessarily indicative of what is going on in terms of consumer trends, rather it is just a look at search habits. I’m sure that this has value, perhaps as a beginning point in trend research, to give you a bit of direction or to offer an overall look at what is of interest to people. I typed in Travel and Tourism and didn’t seem to get anywhere substantive immediately, although after a little digging, I found a website that (http://www.travelweekly.com/) that could prove to be a useful resource in researching travel trends.
Overall: I found Trendwatching and Springwise to be the most useful sites, with PFSK running a close third.
http://www.trendwatching.com/
This site has a tremendous amount of information in the “Current Briefing” section. In just a few minutes of surfing I found myself reading about the trend of online commerce bleeding over into the offline world. They discussed many sub-trends such as technology that is built to integrate with the web (a camcorder with a one-button youtube upload feature), avatar clothing brought to life and social networking that facilitates meetings, or meetups, for people with similar interests. The catalogue of “Current Briefings” are a wealth of trend topics. This site, however, does not seem to be a great resource if you are looking to research a specific trend or industry. I typed in Travel and Tourism in the search field and I was redirected to google search results that didn’t seem to be too useful. Nevertheless, there appears to be a ton of insightful information on this website and it is evident that they have a vast network of researchers combing society for new and unique trends.
http://www.springwise.com/
I found Springwise to be the most useful trend site overall. For me it was the right combination of generally unique, fringe trend spotting and idea generation combined with the ability to research more specialized areas. I searched under Travel and Tourism and immediately found two trends or innovations that I had not ever heard of. One was Microsoft’s interactive tables that are being tested in some big east coast Sheraton hotel rooms. Essentially, these are large interactive touch screens that provide customized local information to visitors. I can see a need for this technology, but I’m sure it is expensive and at least for the foreseeable future will only be feasible for high-end hotels looking to wow their guests with a flashy technology. Whether or not travelers will jump at this technology is a question, while it is a wealth of information, you can’t take it walking around town with you (Can you print information from these interactive tables? Not sure.). This technology could also provide hotels with another revenue stream, by selling advertisements in some form or another on these interactive tables. Perhaps, that upside could mitigate the cost issue. Only time will tell. I also stumbled upon http://www.simpatigo.com/, a site with interactive wiki-maps powered by google. This site allows the user to add points of interest and descriptions for the benefit of others. This site is new and therefore doesn’t cover a lot of areas, but I can certainly see a real-world application for it, especially for someone walking around a new city with an iphone, looking for something to do or somewhere to eat. Overall, Springwise seemed to be a very useful site.
http://www.pfsk.com/
This site seemed to be less about trends and more about pop culture quirks and fringe products. The interface seemed less formal to me, the homepage appeared to be just a fragmented blog with no overarching theme. However, when I dug a little deeper I found a posting under the Advertising and Branding heading entitled “Selling Lots of Little Media: Micro Sales Add Up”, about http://www.istockphotos.com/ and http://www.shutterstock.com/ which basically lets people upload photos and then sells them at very low prices—photographers get 25-cents every time some downloads one of their photos. This concept would also seem to fall under the category of a “Long Tail” business. Bottomline on PFSK: decent site, but you have to do a little digging to find the value.
http://www.trendhunter.com/
I was not overall impressed with this website. Firstly, it seemed to be so cluttered with iffy pop culture trends that it felt like I was standing in line at the grocery store looking at all of the cover pages of paparazzi magazines. After clicking around a bit, I did find a little more substance and was rewarded with a decent return on my search of Travel and Tourism, in which I found a little information on ecotourism. However, this site doesn’t seem to be too interested in providing real ideas and trends, rather it just seems content getting people to view things—which is a trend in and of itself, so maybe the administrators of this site do know what they are doing.
http://www.ubercool.com/
Upon first glance this site seemed to be another pop culture trend spotter, but as I scrolled down the homepage, I noticed some more substantive articles, including a glance at worldwide wealth and luxury products, the use and implications of LED lighting at the Beijing Olypics opening ceremonies and a look at how the iphone is revolutionizing the mobile phone industry. This site does not seem like one you would go to for specific research (I looked up Travel and Tourism but only found one article of little value), rather it simply seems to be an aggregator of interesting trends and fringe products.
Google Trends
Google trends seems like a valuable way to keep track of what people are searching on the web, but I can’t yet see the practical business value. Even the “How to” article admits that Google Trends isn’t necessarily indicative of what is going on in terms of consumer trends, rather it is just a look at search habits. I’m sure that this has value, perhaps as a beginning point in trend research, to give you a bit of direction or to offer an overall look at what is of interest to people. I typed in Travel and Tourism and didn’t seem to get anywhere substantive immediately, although after a little digging, I found a website that (http://www.travelweekly.com/) that could prove to be a useful resource in researching travel trends.
Overall: I found Trendwatching and Springwise to be the most useful sites, with PFSK running a close third.
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1 comment:
Boy, there is a lot of trends huh?!
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