His article on the over-hyped Internet is also a good read.

I’ve been thinking lately about social news sites. Sites like reddit and digg. They were interesting ideas at their inceptions, but increasingly lend themselves towards complete crap.

If I see another lolcat, another duplicate article about this or that presidential candidate, or something else on global warming, I just might have to take my own life. I rarely visit these sites (that I used to spend hours on a day) anymore. I tend to let my friends filter the news for me, they seem to do a much better job than the mob does.

It’s like everyone on these sites is playing in and throwing around their own vomit, it gets ridiculous. Television is sensationalized and content censored to reflect the bias of the producers, which tends to reflect the fact that media moguls own quite a bit more than just the news outlets. There are quite a few moments though were I would rather watch television than see what new stories have made the front page on Reddit.

I love newspapers because even if they cover the same dead horse topics, there’s always the opinion page. Local papers tend to be my favorite, because of the tight knit community talking about how issues actually impact them, you look in the “letters to the editor” page, and you recognize names of people you know, and you get to hear what they have to say.

The best opinions on anything, or at least the most interesting opinions, are rarely those of the mainstream. How often do you get to hear those? Even on Digg, or Reddit, it’s hard to come by something that’s actually all that interesting, because they all rely on the mainstream media to bring stories to their attention; it’s herd behavior at it’s worst.

I do however look forward to seeing the next iteration of social news sites. I myself have dozens of ideas for how these sites could be improved, and I think there really is something to be said about leveraging the power of a group of people who have a genuine interest in news finding interesting stories and raising community awareness.

Here are two of my ideas for improving social news:

1. Eliminate the democracy. Winston Churchill said, “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” Things have not changed much since his day and age.

Editorial oversight of user submitted stories would make things a great deal better, I think, although it could discourage users from submitting material. There are quite a few ways that you could implement this while minimizing the drop in use submissions.

2. Social DKP. DKP is an acronym for Dragon Kill Points. It’s basically a currency system used in MMO’s to encourage members of guilds to adhere to a set of standards and encourage regular contribution to the guilds progression through the game.

If a site were to reward those who contributed the most with IPhones, Ipods, or new graphics cards, I’d be prepared to wager 100 DKP the quality of stories, would greatly increase.

What do you think? Can social news aggregation be improved? If so, how? If not, why?

Here are the first five of a list of ten current trends that will affect how 2008 shapes up.  After posting the final five trends, I will write a multi-part segment on how you can take advantage of each trend this year.

Growth In The Interactive Marketing Segment
Interactive marketing, which includes search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, online content and video ads, mobile marketing, and social media marketing, is consistently growing as a key advertising category.  Over the next few years, spending on interactive marketing will more than triple, reaching $61 billion USD by 2012 according to Forrester Research.  Interactive marketing currently makes up just 8% of all advertising spending and with the growth trend this percentage should increase to 18% by 2012.

Traditional to Alternative Media
Advertising in traditional media, like newspapers and magazines, will continue to be a key part of advertising campaigns, but more and more advertisers will experiment with or allocate portions of their budget to new, alternative media.  Many marketers and advertisers are realizing better and more measurable ROI and each day the shift to new media will continue with alternative advertising spending being estimated to increase more than 21% from 2006 to 2011 while traditional advertising’s compound growth rate will stall at roughly 1% per year, according to a communications industry forecast published by Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

Blogging: Everyone Isn’t An Expert
Over the past several years, it seems like everybody and their Mom has started a blog.  The word “blog” has moved from web jargon to a household term.  When there are too many options and too much supply, demand usually wanes.  I don’t think there are or can be “too many” blogs, but in 2008, people will narrow down their RSS feeds and will look for experts.  With more bloggers out there than at any other time, people are beginning to realize they have many options on many topics when it comes to valuable and original content.  Also, many individuals and companies that started blogs and joined the blogging bandwagon have let their blogs fall to the wayside or haven’t had much success, so I predict a natural correction is taking place as the committed and original bloggers are separated from bloggers simply looking to join the bandwagon or make more money by pitching their products/services on a blog.

Social Networking: Expansion, Explosion, and Older Age Groups
Sure, every teenager and most twenty-somethings are fully immersed in the social networking realm, utilizing websites like Facebook and mySpace to manage their friendships, pictures, etc…  In 2008, social networking will expand and explode with niche social networking websites cropping up around every topic imaginable.  Tools like Ning makes this more possible than ever.    Social networking will also be utilized by older age groups as Mom and Dad and Grandpa and Grandma begin using social networking websites to make more efficient use of their time, stay connected with love ones, and share their media.

Small IS The New Big
Is a “multinational microbusiness” a contradiction or the future norm?  In 2008, small continues to dominate as small businesses are further enabled to be more nimble, more global, and more innovative via technology improvements.  With web 2.0, social networking, and more web applications than you can handle, it will become easier and easier to brainstorm an idea, deploy a business, and follow-through without being GE or having Warren Buffet as your financial backer.

Part Two Teaser: The World Continues To Flatten, Group Think Is In, The Green Life, Cell Phones (and how they’re used) Evolve, and Marketing Gets More Creative