So herein is my list of this years emerging online trends and Trojan horses ready to infiltrate a desktop, tablet or mobile near you in 2014. Some might seem a little left of centre but the better predictions generally are no? Feedback welcome on whether this Hot 8 will keep the internet cool this year. Brett Thompson is a Senior Account Director at Reactive Media, Sydney.

1. HOT 8
Online Predictions
2 14

2. 1
Invisible buttons
As Gamification moves from buzz-word to
expectation, internet users in 2014 will start
to demand more from the websites they
inhabit in order to retain interest and
stimulate interactivity. To accommodate,
websites will begin to reward curiosity
more aggressively and features like
invisible buttons will become conversation
worthy this year.

3. 2 Gif Gifting
As your mum and dad and aunty start to
alleviate the loneliness of single
parenthood with the likes of Tinder,
younger generations will be looking for
new things to titillate social and sexual
interactions online this year. The
retrofication of everything these past few
years will move into selfy-sexualisation with
animated .gif porn being the second-date
must-receive of 2014.

4. 3 Pop-up eCom
There are a lot of things the real world
steals from online innovation but the same
can be said for some things in reverse.
Take the pop-up store, a simple but
ingenious concept that changed the way
we did retail in 2011. Moving this online
will have major impact in 2014 with
otherwise product-vanilla sites like insurers
and banks being given the chance to sell
valuable real-estate to alternative retailers
with like-audiences - providing respite in
between policy review and home-loan
calculation. Always for a limited time only.
Get the look!

5. 4 Social Skimming
With philanthropy firmly on the agenda in
this reinspired post-Mandela world, social
sites and utilities will harness the potential
of micro-donation as an engine to fund
raise and influence change. ‘Would you like
to donate 50c to upload this photo-album’
or ‘accept this event invitation and give $2’
will become more common options this
year. Fingers crossed the generosity is
properly managed.

6. 5 Speech blurbing
Remember those photo-albums you used
to create in the mid-nineties? Summer
holidays in full kodak-colour with speechbubble stickers to help fill in the blanks.
Yep, those ones. Well, this year expect the
internet to fill with similar devices as
advertisers and gossip columnists unlock
the potential of e-speech-bubbling to
instigate discussion, prompt purchases or
add comic value to otherwise serious news
stories. A picture can now tell 1010 words.
And sell you that football jersey with a
single click.

7. 6 Wordy websites
Yes hipsters have loved typography and
infographics for a while, but in 2014
typography-only websites will go
mainstream as we start to enjoy reading
again and realise how lovely the written
word can look en masse. Font websites are
already starting to rub their hands together
with glee.

8. 7 Bonanza banners
2014 will also see banner advertising
become fashionable again as advertisers
employ mystery and chance to encourage
that valued click-through. It will be as
simple as surprise-win promotions meeting
mainstream brand advertising, ensuring
everyone is only one click away from a
possible (and legitimate) fortune. These
maybe-me banners as they will be known
will be unassuming ads, policed by adserving networks who will invest a portion
of their profits to kick-start this initiative.

9. 8 Divergent search
There is a generation growing up online that
expects their search engines to know exactly
what they want to find based on search
criteria even they do not know the algorithm
for. In direct retaliation this year, some
entrepreneurial search engines will be putting
the chance of discovery back in their results
listings, encouraging search diversity over
exact match favouritism, putting the fun back
into finding once again. Enjoy the journey.
Efficiency is so 2013.