• Battelle's Searchblog, Wednesday, January 3, 2007 10:15 AM

John Battelle, one of the Web industry's better prognosticators, gives his 2007 predictions. Among them: Yahoo, AOL or IAC will be scooped up by Microsoft this year, as the software giant realizes it can't build its way into a better online media position.

If it doesn't buy AOL, Yahoo will, he says. Failing that, AOL will go public, but the IPO will receive a lukewarm review.

Perhaps, but the official stance from the Time Warner camp is that AOL is still several years away from being let go, especially since its massive executive shakeup has only just taken place.

Elsewhere, Battelle says Google will further integrate YouTube into its main services, promoting it on its main Web page, and perhaps phasing out "Google Video" as a content destination altogether.

The ad sales side of things won't pick up until late 2007 at the earliest, because "advertisers in video have all sorts of structural reasons to not want to work the way Google wants them to work."

Yahoo will recover, but not to the extent that investors hope--Panama will take at least a year to get its footing. Battellle says to expect a much-needed change in executive leadership at eBay.

Read the whole story at Battelle's Searchblog »