Ryan Ripley . Com

Lots of people are buffing their crystal balls (the 10 year old in me is laughing hysterically) and making their web predictions for next year. Here’s a quick round up of the one’s I’ve enjoyed with some of my with a payoff at the end.

Cameron Moll provides his hit list. And actually while you are on the site take a look around. His design and web articles are excellent. The Full-Time Freelancing: 10 Things Learned in 180 Days is exceptional. And his series on creating That Wicked Worn Look is spot on. Overall his ball rubbing has led to some insightful predictions. His thoughts on mobile technology cover a little blogged area.

37Signals has their post on the future. Here’s a sample of the discussion:

I predict 2006 will be yet another year of a lot of crappy corporate web sites oblivious to usability and accessibility issues and full cross browser support along with an overuse and abuse of Flash, Ajax and the like…though, yes, we’ll still have plenty of drop shadows.

Finally, Andy Budd predicts a standards centric year. Filled with gum drops, web 2.0 buzz, and Ruby on Rails all the way home…

(**Editor Note: Damn Christmas Music Playing in the Background**)

So what do my balls tell me? I think 2006 with be the year of the BETA. Tons of web startups that live in the blissful state of perpetual testing. Huge buttons begging to be pressed. Fonts so damn big you’ll need 2 monitors to read, and wait… come in real close… AJAX!!!

To be a bit more scientific I asked my magic 8 ball, “Will 2006 be the year of web2.0?”. To which it replied:

“Thank you trying the magic 8 ball. We are currently taking email address for beta testing. If you’d like to get in on the beta once we release the final magic 8 ball please fill in you email address in the rediculously large entry box below.”

It should be a fun year!