July 8, 2008 – Vol. 2, Issue 14

Look into our crystal ball…

Want to know the next “big thing”. There are a bunch of cool sites that help predict trends and can help you get ahead of the curve.

You trendsetter you.

Edopter.com is a cool site that not only shows you what’s in and up and coming, but also allows YOU to create a trend of your own. They score each trend by combining the user insight with the internet buzz that’s created around it and then measure that with the time it takes for an idea to “hit it big”.

Just the facts, ma’am.

If you want a more scientific perspective, the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project is another great way to look at trends. They study behaviors and attitudes of Americans in key areas of their lives, including family, community, health, finance, work and leisure. They combine primary public opinion surveys with social economic and demographic data analysis.

Here’s an interesting insight…A recent survey on the site reported that only 13% of adults say it’s “very important” for them to be wealthy. Those who aren’t wealthy are the most likely to say they want to be rich .

Go figure…

They said what?

Trendpedia is a great way to search blogs so you can keep up on what is happening in the social media arena. They organize articles into a trendline that shows the popularity of the topic over time. And it collects posts about your topic by day, so when you click on your trendline, the articles appear organized by topic and date. Cool, huh?

Stump The Researcher.

There is a lot of pressure to switch over the light bulbs in my house to fluorescent. Can you go over the pros and cons?

Well, we found some expert opinions for you. (And we changed ours over some time ago!)