For media, the year that wasn't

All the much-hyped trends for 2008 did not go exactly as planned. The colliding worlds of entertainment, media and technology remain wildly unpredictable and easily oversold. 1) Google rules the Web -- and paid search advertising in particular -- but has not had nearly as much success branching into other areas, particularly traditional media advertising like television, radio and print. 2) The biggest fears of Rupert Murdoch's ownership of the Wall Street Journal -- meddling to pursue his personal and corporate agendas -- have not yet materialized. 3) Excluding Internet spending, ad spending across all traditional media in this year's third quarter was down 8.5 per cent, the sixth consecutive quarter of declining spending. And that was before the meltdown really got going. 4) Very few of the scores of online video creations launched by so-called professionals failed to capture the popular imagination this year.