• by Tameka Kee , December 14, 2007

Jordan Rohan followed up his Internet Awards ceremony with some predictions for which names we'd be paying most attention to next year when it came to Web ads and search.

Yahoo, Yahoo, Yahoo -- and who's gonna step up to the plate to buy them. The Web giant is restructuring a major ad/distribution/revenue deal with AT&T, and Rohan says that investors may not like the way the chips fall afterward. The stock will continue to underperform, which means that an acquisition is almost inevitable.

Look for interest from AT&T, News Corp., eBay, and of course Microsoft as possible buyers -- with the software giant as the clear leader in terms of money to throw around. But eBay will put up a fight if Microsoft makes a public play for Yahoo.

Facebook will continue to shine. Rohan says that media types made too much fuss over the Beacon misstep -- Facebook's users really didn't care. They are a young company, with young leadership, so they're going to make mistakes.

He did say that going to Facebook's offices felt like being a parent going to pick up your kids from college ... but nonetheless, their platform and rapidly expanding user base will continue to draw interest from advertisers and developers.

And watch for the lead generation shake-out to continue. Expect both pressure from the government, and some industry self-regulation over use of the terminology used within the industry -- from what "free" really means, to the necessary disclosures about consumer information sharing and data licensing.

Lead gen shakeout to continue … FTC currently focused on use of the word free and necessary disclosers, use of email and forced lengthy survey path

Data licensing, information

n     new developments … matchpoint -- if you don't like the lead gen email barrage -- how anc