If nothing else, this past year has been a year where buzzwords evolved faster than Cro-Magnons in a Geiko commercial.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: viral, “Web 2.0″
By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: social media

Why? Because marketers began to understand that in the maturing new media landscape, there’s more value in creating and sustaining relationships and conversations than in getting a video of your slightly dorky executive playing guitar maximum traction on YouTube.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: mobile marketing OR online video OR widgets
By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: cross-platform, integrated campaigns

Why? Because once we got over the cool factor of these shiny new channel toys, we realized that for now, they’re pretty much only ready to augment existing channels, rather than replace them.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: Digg
By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: StumbleUpon

Why? Digg started out the year strong, but towards the end of 2007, scandals regarding Digg’s treatment of their most valuable asset–the community of power users–had seriously tarnished the social media site’s reputation. Meanwhile, StumbleUpon brought back a sense of wonder, exploration and surprise to jaded web surfers.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: Myspace
By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: Facebook

Why? Mike thinks it was Virginia Tech. I think it was massive eyestrain from annoying banner ads and exceptionally poor user experience. Either way, while Myspace still has the numbers, by the end of the year, Facebook owned the buzz. Even their missteps (**cough**Beacon**cough**) were more newsworthy than what Myspace was finally getting right.

In the beginning of 2007, the buzzword was: Second Life
By the end of 2007, it was replaced by: MyBlogLog / Twitter

Why? Hmmm… spend hours and cash creating an animated virtual self, and hope you run into someone you’d want to network with while running around Second Life, or spend a half hour creating a profile and start building avatar recognition where the best and brightest minds in the blogosphere are converging and conversing? What sounds like a worthwhile use of your time, in retrospect?

So that’s our recap of how the biggest buzzwords of 2007 evolved over the course of the year. What’s the big picture in all this? That marketers are beginning to both adopt the new tools that the web (and Web 2.0) offer and understand how they fit in a long-term, sustainable interactive marketing and digital advertising plan.

That’s a huge jump to make in only a year, and obviously, not everyone has made it. However, overall these trends are great news for those who work in marketing and advertising on the web, and the brands and companies they represent.

The more we all get on the same page in terms of strategy, goals and value, the better we can all be in effectively contributing our part of the effort.

When it comes to interactive marketing, where everyone is constantly scanning for the next big thing, there’s big potential everywhere, but in the words of Jerry Maguire, it’s like popcorn in the pan: some pop, some don’t. So lets take a look at some recent properties that had strong buzz in the last year, but didn’t quite hit those high expectations.

1. Second Life. Yes, you can argue that certain specific brands were able to effectively leverage a presence in Second Life for some significant ROI, but on the whole, the platform hasn’t yet lived up to the hype it received in its early days.

Why not? Because the vast majority of consumers are overtaxed trying to keep up with their first life, much less a digital second one.

2. Myspace. As with Second Life, some industries (the music industry in particular) have had great success with Myspace as a marketing platform. But other industries are rapidly losing interest in favor of its collegiate cousin, Facebook and its inviting open API.

Why not? Because most brands lack the understanding and willingness to commit time and resources to effective social network marketing. And it’s just not a great fit for every company.

3. Ask.com. This time last year, industry insider buzz was pointing to Ask.com as a hot contender to seriously challenge Google in search. A year later, Ask has yet to make a serious dent in Google’s search dominance.

Why not? It may be that Ask waited too long. Improved results and a snazzier algorithm isn’t enough to take on Google, now that their acquisitions take them far beyond search.

4. YouTube. When Google made its historic purchase of the video portal, speculation ran wild that online video was going to completely take over interactive marketing. While video continues to grow, the pace has been decidedly slower than some expected.

Why not? The head geeks at Google are still wrapping their prodigious minds around both the copyright implications of YouTube and developing a workable revenue model. YouTube will probably live up to the buzz eventually, but the industry may have expected too much, too soon.

5. Mobile. Technological innovations that enable marketers to advertise across networks has created tremendous interest in mobile and SMS marketing in the last year, but so far advertisers have been slow to test the waters.

Why not? Considering the wide penetration cell phones and other mobile devices have, this one is probably more a matter of time than anything else. Once an effective infrastructure is in place and some key industry leaders emerge, mobile truly could be the next big thing.

Join Mike and Ryan today as they discuss Google’s new Pay-Per-Action platform, click fraud and Second Life.

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