I'm new to the industry I work in (Mobile phones) and I have to do a lot of market research and I tend to agree with you that the information I read online is being quickly outdated with what I hear people talking about at the lunchtable, so to speak.

Thanks for the the mention of blopulse & technorati... i'll check those out.

I agree with Howard that often ony big companies can afford really good research from professionals. That said, any insight is better than no insight, right?
Market research's major challenge for the next five to ten years is to make quality service available to every business, no matter how small. I suspect automation of processes, electronic means of contacting people and well-designed one-size-fits-all products will play a part. Am interested to hear other people's views on the future of the industry.
The evidence is against the "death" of market research. The industry shows healthy growth over past decades that looks set to continue. And it's diversifying - even as people use more and more ways to share opinions, researchers look at more ways to gather opinions.
It's not always as fast as it could be, which I would like to see change. However, as someone who used to research new technologies, customer awareness always takes longer to spread than you might think.