Now that 2011 is behind us, the new year allows for new players to step into the startup game with brand new ideas and visions. Even though companies like Facebook, Apple, Twitter, and Instagram had massive success last year, there are still areas that are just begging for a tech makeover.

Some of the innovation will most certainly come from giant companies with a lot of money to spend and huge teams, but I think we’ll be surprised by how many smaller startups will take on big problems in 2012.

If I were working on something new, these are the areas I’d hone in on with laser focus.

Private social networks

Path tried to set the world on fire last year with its app that allows you to interact with under 150 people. It’s the anti-Facebook, if you will. With version 2.0, Path is closer to creating an experience that I believe more people will want to participate in this year, but the companies mobile-only approach is leaving a lot of opportunities on the table. I’d love to see a few other teams try to tackle this concept using the web, since it’s a clear path to bringing in mainstream users like Mom and Dad.

Google is on to something with its “Circles” concept for Google+, but it’s difficult to escape the feeling that you’re on a platform with millions of other people. A simple and personalized web-centric alternative to Path could really make private social networking hot in 2012. What Path is lacking though is the feeling of collaboration that is commonplace in a small circle of friends or family members. The app is still focused on the concept of the stream, and I’d like to see someone else take a different approach.

Local

Look for the local boom to hit us at some point this year. With apps like foursquare and Facebook letting us share our locations and interact with local businesses, there is still an opportunity for someone to build a platform that is made only to interact with your favorite coffee shop or restaurant.

Imagine being able to know things about a restaurant in real-time, like how many people are there, what the specials are, and even what waiters and waitresses are working that night. Making your customers feel like they have insight into how you operate will build a better relationship with them and keep them coming back.

Telephony

Everyone jokes about how we don’t use the telephone anymore, and it’s not because we don’t like to talk to people. The lack of innovation when it comes to telephony is absolutely shocking. The hottest thing to happen to the phone in the past 5 years was visual voicemail from Apple. There are companies working on re-imagining our experiences on the telephone already, but this is something that will be on fire in 2012. Skype gave us VOIP for computers, added some video, and that’s about it.

In the near future, we should be able to engage in synced gaming, note-taking, and other interactions while we’re on the phone. If you’re an AT&T user, you know how great it is to be able to check your email or the web for something while you’re talking on the phone. Sorry Verizon customers. This type of interaction needs to be made easier, and you should be able to challenge someone to a game of Angry Birds right in the middle of a conversation.

The technology is there, it’s time to innovate.

TV and web integration

The various hacks for Apple TV have me excited about the future of the television. This innovation is Apple’s for the taking, but with the potential for a fully interactive TV from Apple, comes a whole new platform for developers to build on.

Start thinking about what apps you’d like to have open while you’re watching TV or a movie. Text messages, incoming phone calls, email, Tweets, and live chat are the easy ones. But if you think about all of the data on the web that can be pulled into a broadcast contextually, the possibilities are absolutely mind-blowing. I’ve played around with Google TV, and its widget approach is just not going to do it. A seamless interactive experience on the television will surely be ours by the end of 2012.

Photography

Don’t run away, developers. Instagram doesn’t own the universe yet. There is a lot of room for innovation when it comes to photography on mobile devices. While Instagram has built a fantastic community around streams of photos with filters, there are sure to be more things to do with photos.

I’d love to see developers that use photography for do-it-yourself animation or do smarter things with the meta data stored with your photos. For example, Apple’s Camera Roll could surely use its own refresh. It tells me nothing about my photographs. I’d also like to see apps that help me stitch together similar photos based on colors or objects in them. Again, the technology is there, but hasn’t been put to full use yet.

Small and fast wins

These are the areas that I see the most room for improvement and innovation in 2012. The platforms are there, technology is there, and the talent to build great things are most certainly there. It won’t be the big companies that wow us in 2012, it’ll be the smaller teams who eventually build something focused and user-friendly that will.

What areas do you feel are ripe for innovation this year? Tell us in the comments.

Google has announced today that its extending free calling within Gmail through 2012 for calls made within the United States and Canada. This is of course similar to its announcement for 2011.

In an extremely brief blog post today, Google announced the move:

As the holiday season approaches, we’re happy to announce that we’ve extended free domestic calls within the US and Canada for 2012.

This is our way of helping you connect with friends and family across the country. And you can still call the rest of the world from Gmail at our insanely low rates.

Google Voice is still trying to become the default VOIP carrier online, with Skype being its main competition. Voice has found its way into not only Gmail, but into Google+ Hangouts as well.

In a study published by BGR today, it has been made clear that the slew of messaging and VOIP apps on the market are already making a dent into the paid services provided by carriers.

The study by mobile(SQUARED) shows that according to operators, messaging, voice and video apps will cause usage of its own services to drop between 11% and 20% over the next 5-10 years. Some operators see that number being closer to 31%-40%.

Even Steve Jobs wanted to build his own wireless carrier to bypass services provided by carriers. For example, iMessages completely bypasses text messaging. Will we just need data from carriers in the near future? Probably.

Since companies like Facebook are ramping up its free Messages platform, and Google Voice getting more and more integrated into our social experiences, carriers may have to look closely at its offerings to keep its customers happy, and more importantly paying.

The study was carried out for Mavenir, and its VP Shubh Agarwal had this to say about the findings:

The findings confirm what we have found in discussions with the mobile industry. This is one of the primary reasons the industry is currently moving towards an all-IP converged core network accelerated by the deployment of LTE technology. By allowing users to place high-definition voice and video calls, chat, share content, and discover new services as part of a globally connected framework, operators can retain and even grow their share of customer communication spend.

mobile(SQUARED) analytics Gavin Patterson shared his thoughts about the upcoming decline in need for carrier’s service:

The mobile landscape is changing as users embrace messaging of all kinds that enable them to seamlessly message a multitude of devices. This study confirms that lucrative messaging revenues are already impacted and operators are assessing ways to deliver core-network services in the all-IP environment. Rich Communication Ecosystem (RCE) applications are one example of how mobile operators can overcome the hurdles they face.

With apps like Skype, GroupMe, WhatsApp, and Kik replacing the need for voice calling and texting on the carrier’s dime, the operators are looking to dig in and build its own group messaging and VOIP services to embed into devices tied to your existing phone number.

Just recently, WhatsApp announced that its users now send over one billion messages a day. That’s got to hurt carriers, not just because they’re missing out on potential business, but because they simply can’t control it.

Some people believe that phone numbers are a thing of the past. Yesterday, I spoke with Enflick‘s Co-Founder Derek Ting, creator of popular messaging apps TextNow and PingChat. He thinks numbers are dead in the water:

Everyone has a smart phone, 5-10 years from now, we’re going to a numberless world.

Do you text and call more than using services like Skype, Facebook, GroupMe, and Kik? Tell us in the comments.

Steve Ballmer was at the Web 2.0 conference, and there was a main recurring theme. Social.

The CEO of Microsoft said that “Apple has punted on social”, despite its integration of Twitter in iOS5, and discussed Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype and deep partnership with Facebook, and would like you to believe that Microsoft is right in the middle of social. Ballmer pointed to the strengths of Microsoft’s ability to link your social personas using its Windows Live ID platform to illustrate this.

When asked about Google+, Steve Ballmer refused to discuss any competition between the two companies in social, and feels like it’s in a stronger position with Skype as a part of Microsoft.

About Google+ and Microsoft, Steve Ballmer said:

We don’t don’t have to take on every battle

Ballmer also openly expressed and admitted Microsoft’s “luck” in not purchasing Yahoo! for 44.6 billion dollars last year. The CEO says that its partnership with Yahoo! continues to be strong, and he is proud to bring Microsoft users the vibrant Yahoo! Content.

When asked about Bing and the search market, Ballmer proudly said that Microsoft has taken the number two position after Google with a 15% share of the market. When it came to the cloud market, Steve Ballmer announced that Microsoft is “All in, baby” and says that “Microsoft is beating Google on apps in the cloud”, but provide no data to back up the claim.

Steve Ballmer seemed to gloss over XBox, which has indeed seen much success. When it came to the phones, Ballmer said it was “hard to get excited about the Android phones“, without much explanation, but said that iPhone was “a good competitor” to Microsot’s upcoming Windows 8 phones.

It sounds like Steve Ballmer and Microsoft is indeed trying to take on every battle, despite his claim.