British-based vnunet.com thinks 2008 will mark several milestones as social networking becomes increasingly integrated into the consumer business model, a shift predicted for ’07 that wasn’t as widespread as imagined.

Feedback and influence from social networks will ultimately become more significant factors in the purchasing decision cycle.

Our view is that print will remain the media of record even as consumers make the wholesale move to web-driven info for purchase-related decisions.

Social nets – for better or worse – will get more and more use as endorsement gateways offering peer-to-peer near-realtime dialogues. In practical terms, if as seems likely, I’ll now have to replace a perfectly decent HD DVD player with a Blu-ray DVD player to go with all my other DVD dammit players that have become useful as kickstand supports. Sorting out the pluses and minuses will take place on a social net somewhere, as opposed to waiting for the latest “Electronics Monthly” to show up on Border’s magazine rack.

Conclusion? If you’re not blogging your product, and/or watching what’s being blogged about your product, your competitor is. Which means their widget will come up, and your widget won’t.