This morning’s Observer column.

On the web, we will see whether Twitter, geeks' beloved microblogging service, can find a viable business model. Given that Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson have just discovered, and signed up for, the service, it has clearly peaked. When boobies like that are using it, all persons of taste flee.

In the corporate world, 2009 is likely to be dominated by: speculation about Apple's ability to survive Steve Jobs's departure (yawn); Yahoo's death throes; Microsoft's struggle to erase the bad karma of Vista with shiny new Windows 7, plus its doomed attempts to seize the initiative in web services, search and online advertising; and Wall Street's disillusionment with Google, as the search giant struggles with the impact of recession on advertising. Hard times will mean fewer impulse buys of electronic toys, that upgrades will be postponed, and that companies will finally begin to examine the energy costs of their PC-based networks.

Other than that, I haven't a clue what will happen. Happy new year!