I have always prided myself on my ability to keep up with news and developments in various fields. I accomplish this by regularly visiting a few top sites in the fields that I am interested in.
But from June 2005 till Jan 2006, for almost 6 months, I stopped looking at what's happening in Silicon Valley, due to a variety of reasons, personal and professional.
And when I started looking at the sites, blogs etc., again in January, I discovered that Web 2.0 has made a really fast move and in just 6 months, there may have been literally hundreds of new sites and services. While most of the services are based on technologies that existed since 2002, some of the new services are a testament to the creativity of the promoters.
And friends from San Jose tell me that the dreamers have come back; people are getting offers to quit companies like Cisco and Oracle to join these startups. See the story on Newsweek for example:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12015774/site/newsweek/
Is this another bubble? What explains this new found optimism and the sudden influx of new ideas and services, and more importantly funds and talent?
Whatever it is, one must doff the hat to the spirit of Silicon Valley and its dreamers.Hundreds of companies may go bust, but every one of them will dream of being a Rakesh Mathur or a Venky Harinarayan, or any of those successful entreprenurs from the last bubble.
So far, Half.com, and MySpace.com seem to be some of the early birds who have cashed in. As I make more sense of this, I will try to study what's happening on various fronts in Web 2.0 and post links to other blogs.
But from June 2005 till Jan 2006, for almost 6 months, I stopped looking at what's happening in Silicon Valley, due to a variety of reasons, personal and professional.
And when I started looking at the sites, blogs etc., again in January, I discovered that Web 2.0 has made a really fast move and in just 6 months, there may have been literally hundreds of new sites and services. While most of the services are based on technologies that existed since 2002, some of the new services are a testament to the creativity of the promoters.
And friends from San Jose tell me that the dreamers have come back; people are getting offers to quit companies like Cisco and Oracle to join these startups. See the story on Newsweek for example:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12015774/site/newsweek/
Is this another bubble? What explains this new found optimism and the sudden influx of new ideas and services, and more importantly funds and talent?
Whatever it is, one must doff the hat to the spirit of Silicon Valley and its dreamers.Hundreds of companies may go bust, but every one of them will dream of being a Rakesh Mathur or a Venky Harinarayan, or any of those successful entreprenurs from the last bubble.
So far, Half.com, and MySpace.com seem to be some of the early birds who have cashed in. As I make more sense of this, I will try to study what's happening on various fronts in Web 2.0 and post links to other blogs.
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