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Participants of the Tech Buzz Game try to predict how popular various technologies will be in the future. The results are measured against the actual search volume on Yahoo! Predictions are made by buying virtual stock in technologies you think are about to boom, and selling when substance doesn’t match the hype.
The Tech Buzz Game is a fantasy prediction market for technology. Your goal is to foresee trends ahead of the crowd: to invest in the technologies that are underpriced by the market relative to their potential. If, over time, your predictions are better than other players’ predictions, your fantasy fortune will grow.
The Tech Buzz Game is about more than amassing fantasy dollars. As a player, you contribute to the collective “wisdom of crowds” as the marketplace as a whole converges on a common vision of the future of technology. Prices in the market convey the community’s sentiment about where technology is headed, a barometer we can all look to as we contemplate the future.
Markets & stocks
The Tech Buzz Game is divided into separate markets. Each market pits a handful of rival technologies against one another. These technologies or products are represented by a stock. For example, the Browser Wars (BROWSER2) market includes Internet Explorer and Mozilla stocks. Think Mozilla Firefox is going to blow the doors off Internet Explorer soon? Then buy stock in Mozilla. Be warned: If everyone else in the market agrees with you, the current Mozilla price may already be too high.
The Tech Buzz Game is a product of Yahoo! Research and O’Reilly Media