Spending on Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, mashups, widgets, social networks and RSS is set to rocket by 43 per cent a year over the next five years to reach $4.6 billion globally by 2013, according to new research from analyst firm Forrester Research.

Global Enterprise Web 2.0 Market Forecast: 2007 To 2013 also predicts that the current trend of firms spending more on employee collaboration tools than customer facing Web 2.0 technologies will be reversed by next year.

However, many firms' IT departments are still wary of the technology because they regard it as too consumer-focused and not secure, the report added.

“Social Computing and Web 2.0 marketing are still in their infancy; and in general, the market is still in an experimentation phase,” said report author Oliver Young. “But in the long run, the effect of Web 2.0 will be enormous."