Federico Pistono

We all like to try to predict the future, often we do it with our friends, just for phun, then we boast around victorious in case our prediction came true.

Now we can do that outside the walls of our home, ZiiTrend has the typical self-explanatory image on the front page:

Quite clear to me. Here's the deal, interface à la dig for the list of trends and tag clouds, a lot of resemblance to Google finance. Hey, what's wrong with copying what works? ^_^

Currently the hottest trends are mostly Google or US politics based, such as Prediction: Will Google launch its 3D Virtual World service in 2007? or Will US attack Iran before the end of presidency of George W. Bush?, but you may also find other things of interest.

As for the social network part, as Erick Schonfeld points out:

The problem with all prediction markets is that it is difficult to get people to participate. And that will be ZiiTrend’s biggest challenge. The site does make it easy for anyone to upload their own question for everyone else to vote on, which could help it spread virally. But what they really need is a Facebook/MySpace/blog widget that could bring people into the system.