2006 was a big year for the web, with things like blogs, rss, and user-generated news inching closer and closer to the mainstream. While such services are surely going to continue gaining ground on “traditional media,” there are a few other aspects of the web (and web design) that I expect to surge in 2007.

The Reign of Related Content

News stories, information pages, search results, and almost any webpage you can think of are no longer going to be the expected “end point” of a user’s interaction with a site. With the giants like Google and Yahoo opening up a lot of their services via API, related content is going to make its way on to most websites this year. Traditionally thought of as mashups, integrating related from content is going to become so common in 2007 that the name will most likely be dropped, and lose its uniqueness.

Even on traditional news sites related (and often external) content will be pulled in, as sites give up the hope of being the “have all” for users, instead opting for the “can get to all.” We have seen this to some extent already, but I expect it to surge in 2007.

Journalists and Reporters Must Blog

We are already seeing this to a large extent, as writing for traditional media such as newspapers is no longer enough. Both reporters and journalists will be expected (both by employers and readers) to get more personal by beginning blogs that give their personal thoughts and reflections on stories, rather than simply reporting. In addition, they will be expected to post news tidbits on their blogs that may not be developed enough to make it as a full-blown story in traditional media.

Less Complicated Interface Design

As a corollary of the first prediction, newly designed sites in 2007 will focus less on heavily-structured, onsite navigation, instead opting for simpler, more general navigation. Rather than trying to force the user into wading through sections, categories, and subcategories via site-wide navigation, designers will focus more on “in-content” navigation, trying to enhance the user’s movement throughout the site. Many navigational links will be presented only on (and most likely within) related stories. For example, on a sports site, football would be the only sitewide navigational link available (in terms of football). Navigation to things like team profiles, etc. will be found inside of related stories rather than in some sort of buried, sitewide navigational link (ahem, take note ESPN, ahem).

Those are the three things I think will have the biggest impact on the web in 2007, and will be most noticeable to the everyday web user. For a more thorough, technical analysis of 2007 predictions see this article on Read/Write Web.