Investment firm Deloitte & Touche weighs in on the top media, telecommunications, and technology trends of 2006. The expanding role of search engines is No. 1 on the list; the firm believes search
engines are poised to replace e-mail as the most used digital service thanks to higher speed connections and the ever-growing mountain of digital data used to personalize results. It also expects a
big year for consumer-based technologies like video games and satellite radio, saying game console makers and publishers will make a collective push toward expanding its core audience of young males,
resulting in new genres and more crossover titles attracting women. Radio listeners will become customers in 2006, buying satellite radio and podcasts, enjoying increased control over what they listen
to and on what device. New Internet-enabled devices will allow advertisers to target messages to specific audiences, but will require more leg work on the part of advertisers, resulting in new media
buys in console games, banner ads on mobile phones and audio ads in podcasts. Deloitte also predicts a big year for convergence-based media like Internet protocol TV and video-on-demand networks over
broadband--but not mobile television, which it doesn't think will be a priority for users.
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