Technology:
1. Digg gets acquired.
2. Google releases Google Calendar and Google Micropayments and OEMs Google maps as a UI for portable iPod like GPS handhelds. Click spam becomes a real worry.
3. Microsoft does a $10billion plus acquisition.
4. Apple takes on Tivo with a Mac Mini style product with Front Row built in.
5. Energy scares and middle east politics dampen the economy such that 2006 is not like 1999 for Web 2.0.
Not technology:
6. US switches foreign policy away from direct military involvement to insurgency funding in Venezuela and ups anti-Chavez rhetoric.
7. Castro dies and Chavez threatens to stick his nose into Cuba.
8. Cracks appear in the Saud’s control over Arabia and information leaks suggesting that Ghawar oil field is water logged.
9. Natural gas prices spiral, US house prices cool and plans for renewed US nuclear power push are drawn up.
10. The first signs of long term problems between the US and China appear over disagreements over Iran.