It’s been a busy couple of days, which have left little time for research and blogging, but I will be back full force next week.  In the meantime, here’s some interesting reading. Gartner’s latest study predicts the future of the blogosphere.

There is a great article posted on Seeking Alpha, which talks about what’s hot and what’s not in Web 2.0.  Using data from Alexa, the article charts trends with Web 2.0 – including social media/ social networking.  Check it out – particularly the graphs detailing the current leadership stats and future estimates.

On a different note, I came across a couple of social media/ web 2.0 sites recently, which are interesting:

• Kaboodle.com: Kaboodle allows you to make pages displaying lists of your favorite products online and share/compare those lists with your friends.  Users can insert a button in their browser’s tool bar, which allows them to capture data on any items they like, while they’re on a website. Users can then take votes on who agrees with their favorite products, etc. Why is this useful?  As Kaboodle points out, the service helps users:
  

  “Plan a vacation Create a wishlist and share it with friends Organize holiday or birthday shopping lists Research LCD and plasma TVs Share research for a school or work project Show off your collection of vintage cars	Share your favorite bands with friends Keep an list of movies you want to see Organize your home remodel Share your favorite restaurants with friends Create a baby or wedding registry Plan a wedding, party or other big event”

• Buxfer (short for “bucks” and “transfer”) would have been useful in high school/college and back in the day when I shared a house…  Three Carnegie Mellon University graduate students developed this site, which helps friends keep track of shared debts – think about all of those shared expenses like electricity/gas/water/cable/ISP/etc bills.  They don’t have a facility for online debt settlement (ala Paypal), but its an interesting way of keeping track of debts without nagging and awkward face time or those annoying notes on the fridge!