Hey everyone,

Been a restful and quiet holiday season here at the ranch, so haven’t been posting. I know I know. At any rate, I thought I’d state some bold, crazy, and just downright mind-bottling predictions.

Politics

• Huckabee beats out McCain for the Republican nomination.
• Clinton defeats Obama and Edwards.
• Clinton then defeats Huckabee in the General Election, making Dennis Miller’s predictions of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton a reality. In an ironic twist, people desire a “Bridge to the Past” — in particular, the world prior to the Bush Administration. Booming economy, no war, good times.

Search

• Google picks up another 5% share. Microsoft starts to spend serious money, still doesn’t buy Yahoo.
• Baidu solidifies in China in a big way.
• Emerging Markets become competitive (South America, India, Russia, etc.) towards the end of the year.
• IAC (Ask.com) merges with Yahoo.
• Personalization (personalized search and personalized ads, in particular) become differentiating features.
• FaceBook Web Search appears (powered by Microsoft). Google pushes their own FB search app heavily.

Football

• New England gets taken down.

Basketball

• Clay Bennett keeps trying to move the Sonics, but can’t get out of the lease until 2010. Both sides dig in. Resolution in 2009.

Personal Hopes

• Randy Pauch sees 2009.

Oh yeah - not making any retail / Amazon predictions this year, mostly as I’m still busy learning about the space.

Happy New Year everyone!