Google launches 23 translating chatbots for its Instant Messaging program GoogleTalk. This makes it possible to chat with someone who speaks a different language. For example in a chat between an American and a Chinese, 2 chatbots are added. The first chatbot translates English texts in Chinese, and the second chatbot does it the other way around. Google Talk thus further develops as a social coaching brand: a brand that facilitates mutual contact between people. In the future all communication barriers, big or small, will be removed step by step. The brand then stays in our lives as a kind of relationship coach. We won't be able to do without it any more then.

Business-social network LinkedIn shows what your colleagues have read lately. It combines the contact list with news on demand. The amount of job offers rises at the same time (dc, Dutch). Because of this you don't just see the important events in the world, but especially the important events in your surroundings. After all employees are not just employees, but especially humans. And humans are involved in their surroundings. Now for news, later also for participation in events, reviews of books or education. LinkedIn thus further develops to be a career coaching brand, a brand that helps you during your whole career.

In the United States it will soon be possible to legally download movies via iTunes, and watch them on TV through Apple iTV. The company has signed the first contract with Fox (em, Dutch)

Very soon we will be able to browse through a trailer caroussel, and directly watch the trailers. Movies we have recently seen, of course are not shown in this caroussel. Besides, this initiative will especially lead to new content, offered at differing prices. Movies might cost as much as 20 euros. But then you have something very exclusive. And after that your own iTunes will also be available at every other screen or display, wherever in the world. And once it becomes really interactive, it will really kick off. Only then TV (and advertising on TV) will really have a problem. In the future home entertainment coaching brands will completely take over the traditional role of broadcasters: programming a night of entertainment. This future is getting very close though.

Since last Summer, Fortis has had Aad as their spokesman. Aad is a virtual mortgage advisor. This chatbot answers questions about mortgages in Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) and on the website. To support the dialogue Aad shows an extra window on the site, or opens the so-called activity window in Messenger. This way the dialogue comes to life, we get more bi-directional contact, while documents, text, audio or images are there to support the dialogue. Just like a normal conversation.

Dutch real estate website Funda has now become accessible through mobile phones (fu, Dutch). Brands start dialogues through all kinds of screens and displays, and adapt their communication to the consumer, and the spacial context. In a next step GPS locations for example will also be included. Then you can see immediately if that house in the neighborhood is for sale. Or where the houses for sale are located in relation to the location you are at now. This is great when you walk around in a neighborhood that feels good to live in. A home coaching brand more and more becomes a brand helping you in the area of housing, wherever you are in the world. This development is part of that.

Kango is the first so-called 'travel review aggregator', a site that gathers reviews from all kinds of review sites, and puts them together. That means 20 million opinions of more than 1000 review websites have been analyzed. Holiday makers can search by terms like 'romantic', or 'sweet', apart from objective criteria like price and location. The beta version for now only works in Hawaii and California (mb, Dutch). In 2007 (and 2008 and 2009) completeness is important: bring everything together for me. This is an example of that.

Social Network Facebook shows your friends what you bought in online shops connected to Facebook (mb, Dutch). This has led to all kinds of privacy discussions. Which makes sense: of course you don't just want to show your friends everything you do. But sharing information with friends is the innovation here. In the future shops will recognize friends, and they will ask you if your purchases and your experiences there can be included in advice for your friends. That is a slightly different way of doing it, but much more pure. What does Facebook have to do with all purchases I make somewhere else?

Tripadvisor, the biggest travel review site in the world, has conducted research among its visitors and published it. Tripadvisor now contains more than 10 million reviews, and the research was conducted among 2500 travelers, to recover the trends for 2008. It was about Hotspots (with Jerba, Tunesia as No 1) and airports (with Schiphol, Amsterdam as No 1) (mb, Dutch). Market research is replaced by client research. Brands with access to consumers are very used to asking questions. This type of research then is relatively easy to conduct. In a next step we will get these types of reports more and more often from travel coaching brands, brands that really book the holiday for us, so that we are sure we have really been there.

Myngle offers a market place for language docents and students. People wanting to learn or docent a language register with Myngle. The student then looks for a docent who best covers his or her needs. At certain times the docent teaches small groups through Skype, in which for example you can learn a language from a native speaker. Students pay docents and judge the quality of the docents and lessons at the end of the course. Docents pay 18 percent commission per student. That covers lesson materials, a digital school board, the social network and a trade platform (em, Dutch).
If there is one branch suitable for worldwide personal service, it is the language course branch (after the virtual sex industry, sex at a distance, read: web cam girls of course). In fact this initiative facilitates mutual contact, people communicating with each other. It would make sense for social networks, potential social coaching brands, to offer similar services in the future, when they have tens or even hundreds of millions of users). By that time they will easily be able to tell what language somebody writes (and speaks!), and what interests this person. Mediating for language lessons will be a logical step then. For now, this is another extra step.

New Dutch travel portal Travelta aims for completeness. The site at the moment includes travel packages from about twenty tour operators. Arke and Oad are expected to join soon. Travelta expects to cover about eighty percent of the total online travel packages by this spring. From the first second onwards Travelta personalizes the site by giving these options: "I have been here", and "I want to go here". Besides visitors can interact with other visitors.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

American company Neurosky has developed a technique to drive robots through bio signals: measurable signals from humans, like emotions, tension or relaxation. You can look at a certain object on a screen, and have it move by relaxing or flexing the eye muscles. A comparable principle makes it possible to make a real robot move. The company expects to see the first applications in video games by next year (fc, Dutch).

New Dutch insurance company Ditzo strips insurances. By cutting all redundancies, they create what they call themselves 'fat free products'. Because Ditzo could start from scratch, it is not bothered by legacy systems or existing customers' expectations. Existing companies are tied in because of the expectations of customers, who for example have always valued their relational magazine and the communication by letters, or have an image in the market that would be damaged by a 'wild', new approach. This however is the step forwards.

The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) has definitely started with broadcasting in High Definition (HDTV) format. Daily listings are already available. All brands, not just broadcasting companies, will start to entertain, inform of involve us in HD format. It's increasingly about images, and high definition sound to touch us more than ever. Right now we think HD is quite something, but later we'll have 3D and holographic projection. It'll start to be really lifelike when images start to respond to us. The text messages of today are nothing compared to that. Currently the BBC is at the front of the line.

Music service Napster from now on is also available at mobile phones through telecoms provider AT&T (mc, Dutch). More and more brands can be found at mobile phones these days. Music brands are usually the first, looking at the expected young users group. In the end brands will be accessible through every possible display, in dialogue. This is a small step in that direction.

Microsoft in its campaign The Ultimate Steal, aimed at students, has them make an avatar and record their own text. The character than speaks the text, and the lips move with the text. The talking avatar then can easily be moved to social network Facebook. Friends thus will see the character, and get the possibility to try and make one themselves (cz). Brands more and more will use pattern recognition technology to understand our texts, our speech and our facial expressions. In this case for a campaign, in the future brands will facilitate us communicating realtime with our friends. As ourselves, as a better version of ourself (just a little more beautiful, wearing slightly nicer clothes, and no glasses), or as somebody else. This is a small step in that direction.

Starting today, Coke Studio users will find themselves transferred to a whole new Coke-sponsored area in the There.com 3D virtual world. As part of its many prolonged branding efforts, Coca Cola has been operating a 2D virtual world environment via its MyCoke.com site. Called Coke Studios, the site lets customers create avatars, listen to and share music with others, or purchase virtual goods through the My Coke Rewards online reward program. (cz).

Brands build 3D worlds in which they invite their clients. Now as part of a separate 3D world, later everything will be connected, so that you don't have a clue of in which 3D world you really are. Just like in the real, physical world. There is only one physical world, and within that are lots of little 3D worlds which trouble free connect to each other. When passing a border, for example the border of a yard, there usually is some kind of dividing line, which however is easy to pass (from several directions). Virtual brand worlds will develop just like that.

Related trends

• Brand worlds
• More 3D