Following some success in predicting the outcome of several major events in 2014 including the FIFA World Cup, US Mid-term Elections, NFL games, and the Scottish independence vote, Microsoft's Bing is taking its crystal ball gazing to another level by envisioning the trends of 2015.
Offering 'a glimpse of the future', the Bing team compiled its forecast through analysing "search signals, social and cultural signals and more" in order to uncover emerging trends that it expects to break through in the coming year. The predictions cover eight categories: awards, designers, fashion, food, football, technology, travel and wearables. The top ten trend 'winners' have been picked by Bing with some geographical variants.
Below are some highlights of Bing's 2015 predictions:
- Fashion: We loved them, we hated them, and now Bing predicts we will love them again in 2015. What are they? Turtlenecks. Bing also predicts we will be seeing more belted scarves and utilitarian jackets in the new year.
- Sports: The NFL season is in the final stretch and fans are pulling for their teams to make it to the Super Bowl in 2015. Bing predicts the final game will come down to the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers with Tom Brady leading the Patriots to the ultimate victory.
- Awards: Who will take home a Grammy this year? The fan favourites are Sam Smith for Best New Artist and Beyoncé for Album of the Year. As for the Golden Globes, the voice of the people is saying they want Boyhood to earn the award for Best Motion Picture Drama.
- Travel: In 2015, travel will be all about exploring the hidden gems across the country. Interest in using one's vacation to explore small towns is on the rise, while metropolitan meccas like New York and Los Angeles will fall off the list.
- Food: Ever heard of the Mediterranean diet? If you haven’t heard of it yet, you’re about to. Bing is seeing a major spike in people’s interest in Middle Eastern food, from dishes they want to try at home to restaurants they plan to visit, people are loving the flavour packed dishes from the Middle East.
Technology in 2015
Of course, here at HEXUS we are most interested in the technology predictions. Looking through Bing's crystal ball we see that 2015 will be the year of Wearables, Digital Personal Assistants (like Cortana), Home Automation, Virtual Reality and 3D printing. These are listed in order of trending strength in Europe but the rest of the world seems to agree on the trends with slight differences in the order. Drilling down in Wearables it looks like the Apple Watch is going to be a winner, even though it is yet to be released and reviewed.
"The billions of searches conducted on Bing give us the opportunity to capture the voice of the people in a unique way. Predicting 2015 is just another example of Bing putting its intelligence to work, with new insights on moments that matter," the Bing team explained. The predictions offered by the team are said to "consider things like search intent and contextual understanding to distinguish the difference between what is truly a trend versus something that is mostly creating buzz".
Microsoft is desperately trying to pitch itself against Google as the go-to destination for predictive technology. Publishing a list as such will definitely help it establish Bing Predicts in the space, especially if the predictions come true. You can discover all the predictions in Bing's full list of categories here.
