Market research catches up with Web 2.0

Tamara Barber, writing for Research-live.com says it's time for the industry to embrace online communities as a research tool ' and defends the increasingly unfashionable term 'Web 2.0'

Barber writes, over the past month, through gatherings such as the IIR's Market Research Event, the Esomar Online Research conference and Forrester's Consumer Forum, researchers have been buzzing about how to incorporate Web 2.0 ' or social media ' into their research mix, how to use the internet for crowdsourcing ideas, and whether customer insights are the same as market research. Clearly, it's time for our industry to innovate, and no doubt companies like BrainJuicer, Invoke Solutions, Communispace and others are teaching the rest of us how to think outside the radio button online survey and adopt the next evolution of online market research.

Take a look at the rest of Tamara's article and let us know your thoughts. Are we moving to Web 2.0 or past it?