Smartphone craze – Thanks to these phones, people this year grew accustomed to sending e-mail, uploading photos and videos and posting status messages from anywhere, at almost anytime.

Facebook grows up -  Facebook now has more than 350 million users. Half of Facebook users log on to the site at least once on any given day, and  the average Facebook user spends nearly an hour a day on the site.

Bloggers threaten regimes – Individuals became publishers in 2009, using the micro-blogging site Twitter to post instant, bite-sized updates to the world. The site was founded in 2007, but grew exponentially this year.

Books go digital – Thanks to Kindle and other portable, electronic readers, e-books started to make inroads on their hardback cousins in 2009.

Info in an instant – In 2009, it’s no longer enough to search for information that was current 30 minutes or an hour ago. Now, Internet junkies look for their news, Tweets and links to be updated in “real-time,” just as they are on Twitter.

App mania – And they make calls, too! Droves of iPhone owners downloaded games, widgets and tools for their phones from Apple. By September, 2 billion of the applications had been downloaded.

Games leave the living room – Mobile gaming platforms shook up the idea that video games must be played from a consol, have great graphics and be backed by huge entertainment companies to succeed. They became social, too! A big shout-out to the cyber athletes out there!

Government gets techie – The Obama Administration launched DATA.gov, a clearinghouse of information on how the federal government works and how tax money is spent.

Search engine wars – Google is still the world’s dominant search engine, but it faced its first real challengers in 2009 as smaller search companies, such as Wolfram-Alpha and Microsoft’s Bing, came up with new ideas about the way people can and should find information online.

‘Smart’ electricity use – The economic recession and a federal stimulus package prompted a old-ish idea in frugal gadgetry to take off in a new way: “smart” technology invaded homes and public works projects in hopes of making our use of fossil fuels more efficient.

We want to wish all of our clients a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year! Here’s to a great 2010!

Source: CNN Tech