Trendwatching

Trendwatching runs a very interesting (little offbeat) newsletter about subtle trends developing all over the world. Example - Feeder Business. Think AuctionDrop for Ebay and may I dare say Six Apart for Amazon ! I can safely predict that there will be many local geography based services in next 10 years who would be counseling families on how to leverage social networks and how to protect their identity, leverage loyalty, build trust and generally helping on ecommerce-related activities. For example in countries like India they will help parents navigate cyberspace to make sure their future son-in-law is Friendster-clean. You get the idea.

Here is what newsletter has to say about the feeder business -

"..often create a win-win situation: they make it easier for consumers and businesses to use a key service that, thanks to its popularity, reach and depth, has become so sophisticated that getting the most out of the service requires help from specialists. "

Othe trends -

Pop-up retail - "From gallery-like shopping spaces with one-off exhibitions to mobile units bringing innercity chic to rural areas, TRENDWATCHING.COM has noticed an increase in temporary retail manifestations around the world."

Generation C - "The GENERATION C phenomenon captures the tsunami of consumer generated content that is building on the Web, adding tera-peta bytes of new text, images, audio and video on an ongoing basis."

Nations-lite - "Millions of global citizens will want to -- and be able to afford to -- live in communities stripped of crime, bad weather and bad housing."

Diaspora Management - "Smart governments are putting their former citizens to good use. We're not talking manipulative religious plots to use immigrants as evangelizing outposts, but about establishing strong business and cultural communities that promote the best and brightest from the 'motherland' in their new countries of residence. Forget embassies. This is where business gets done."

Online Oxygen - "700 million consumers worldwide are beginning to see online access as an absolute necessity, and there are no signs that the pace of integrating online access into daily life is slowing down. "

Massclusivity - "Exclusivity for the masses can be an instant add-on and revenue booster for many goods and services. When was the last time you felt privileged? "

Planned Spontaneity - "Making spontaneous decisions to go somewhere or do something is becoming the norm; in fact, often the only thing consumers are willing to plan is to be... spontaneous!"