2009 is quickly approaching to an end. It is amazing how fast the year has gone by and even more amazing how much change has occurred in just one year.

Here are some of the topics that were covered here on LeadCritic this year:

• The loan modification industry came and went in 2009. Granted, it remains a popular vertical for many companies, it also can be said that there was a rush into the vertical and a large exodus shortly after by companies finding out they could not make it work.
• Companies like Experian, QuinStreet and so many others were forced to lay employees off
• There were acquisitions by companies like Tree.com and QuinStreet. The opportunity to acquire web properties, technologies and other assets at relatively fair values were taken advantage of.
• Tree.com not only used 2009 to add to their family of web properties, but also gave LendingTree a bold new look and message.
• LendingTree files a suit against long time service partner MorTech for allegedly passing along proprietary data to Google and breaking their exclusivity agreement.
• A month later LT dropped the suit.
• TargusInfo officially  announced AdAdvisor and puts Behavioral Targeting and Consumer re-targeting on its head. The results from bridging offline and online data to power ad serving will be extremely exciting to see in 2010.
• Dave Wengel of TargusInfo, who brought lead verification as we know it, decides to move on to partner with Jay Weintraub, founder of LeadsCon.
• The FTC regulates claims made by bloggers, celebrity endorsements and tries to shut down Floggers.
• The case of LG Technologies VS Shin and others comes to the forefront as one of the largest and possibly the first publicly covered case allegedly involving theft and fraud by an employee.
• Then of course the big daddy of 2009, the release of Comparison Ads by Google. 2010 could possibly be a very big year for Comparison Ads. With any luck lead gen companies will step up to the plate and develop an answer to Comparison Ads that will be bigger and better for the consumer.
• Finally, QuinStreet files for their IPO and may help put Lead Generation model on the map again.

All of these things were packed into 2009 and it is my prediction that 2010 will be even more action packed. I think Comparison Ads is going to encourage companies to put their current developments on the fast track for 2010. It is also going to interesting to see how EDU performs next year. It is my guess it will continue to grow but flatten out towards the end of the year. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb and say that I would not be surprised if we see a number of smaller schools go under. I think there are a number of new schools speculating on the industry without the proper business plan to succeed. These schools are currently blindly spending thousands of dollars on leads  and racking up big bills without the amount of enrollments to justify the spend. Who knows…hopefully I am wrong.

Regardless of the negative predictions,  I think the lead gen vertical is going to see positive growth and amazing new developments in 2010.

Do you have any early predictions?

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