14 2 HOT 8 Online Predictions

1 Invisible buttons

As Gamification moves from buzz-word to expectation, internet users in 2014 will start to demand more from the websites they inhabit in order to retain interest and stimulate interactivity. To accommodate, websites will begin to reward curiosity more aggressively and features like invisible buttons will become conversation worthy this year.

2 Gif Gifting

As your mum and dad and aunty start to alleviate the loneliness of single parenthood with the likes of Tinder, younger generations will be looking for new things to titillate social and sexual interactions online this year. The retrofication of everything these past few years will move into selfy-sexualisation with animated .gif porn being the second-date must-receive of 2014.

3 Pop-up eCom

Get the look!

There are a lot of things the real world steals from online innovation but the same can be said for some things in reverse. Take the pop-up store, a simple but ingenious concept that changed the way we did retail in 2011. Moving this online will have major impact in 2014 with otherwise product-vanilla sites like insurers and banks being given the chance to sell valuable real-estate to alternative retailers with like-audiences - providing respite in between policy review and home-loan calculation. Always for a limited time only.

4 Social Skimming

With philanthropy firmly on the agenda in this reinspired post-Mandela world, social sites and utilities will harness the potential of micro-donation as an engine to fund raise and influence change. ‘Would you like to donate 50c to upload this photo-album’ or ‘accept this event invitation and give $2’ will become more common options this year. Fingers crossed the generosity is properly managed.

5 Speech blurbing

Remember those photo-albums you used to create in the mid-nineties? Summer holidays in full kodak-colour with speech-bubble stickers to help fill in the blanks. Yep, those ones. Well, this year expect the internet to fill with similar devices as advertisers and gossip columnists unlock the potential of e-speech-bubbling to instigate discussion, prompt purchases or add comic value to otherwise serious news stories. A picture can now tell 1010 words. And sell you that football jersey with a single click.

6 Wordy websites

Yes hipsters have loved typography and infographics for a while, but in 2014 typography-only websites will go mainstream as we start to enjoy reading again and realise how lovely the written word can look en masse. Font websites are already starting to rub their hands together with glee.

7 Bonanza banners

2014 will also see banner advertising become fashionable again as advertisers employ mystery and chance to encourage that valued click-through. It will be as simple as surprise-win promotions meeting mainstream brand advertising, ensuring everyone is only one click away from a possible (and legitimate) fortune. These maybe-me banners as they will be known will be unassuming ads, policed by ad-serving networks who will invest a portion of their profits to kick-start this initiative.

8 Divergent search

There is a generation growing up online that expects their search engines to know exactly what they want to find based on search criteria even they do not know the algorithm for. In direct retaliation this year, some entrepreneurial search engines will be putting the chance of discovery back in their results listings, encouraging search diversity over exact match favouritism, putting the fun back into finding once again. Enjoy the journey. Efficiency is so 2013.