I started to get a little nostalgic for the go-go days of Web 1.0 when doing some Web 2.0 reading. The more things change, and all that. A few similarities really jumped out. These are very high level observations, and somewhat tongue in cheek, but anyway …

Companies with unfeasibly high valuations. It’s easy to point the finger at Facebook because it’s got the profile right now. Unlike some of it’s predecessors who sadly passed on in 2001, it has some revenues, but $30m versus a valuation of $15bn doesn’t do it for me. However, this has been the way the technology industry has moved for as long as I can remember, so that’s not entirely surprising.

Lots of companies all sporting the same shiny ‘new’ business model, i.e. predominantly advertising revenue-driven. As Tricky said, “brand new, you’re retro”. I spent many hours around the turn of the century trying to convince potential clients that the Web was not paved with moon-dollars, or even regular dollars. Just because Google have so far done a good job of selling audiences to advertisers, it doesn’t mean it’s viable for the entire rash of social networking sites out there. It’s also quite apparent that Google has bigger fish to fry in the mobile and Wi-Max areas. Network control > platform > applications still holds true in my opinion, at least to a great extent. Especially if you already have the platform and an audience and some tolerably good applications, and if your telco competition is still struggling with how to ‘do’ IP.

Silly names are back with a vengeance. Again, just because Flickr was bought by Yahoo!, it doesn’t follow that any company with a few vowels missing from a perfectly cromulent word (or a few extra consonants) stands an equal chance of being that lucky.

Finally, on a local level, I came across the scrap that’s blown up over Techludd. Since I’ve spent the last number of years in the murky depths of telco infrastructure, I’m out of touch with the companies and individuals involved. The only thing I would say is that any move to try and alter the mentality that still holds fast in many parts of the Irish technology industry - ‘I hold my business cards close to my chest’ - is a good move, regardless of what banner it’s under.