EmperorsClothes 2.0

September 1, 2006

Just read Techcrunch for week and see how many new, VC-backed start-ups are doing what so many other VC-backed start-ups are doing: social-networking, Flash video-sharing, IM, or blogging; throw in a pastel colour pallete, rounded corners and AJAX and make sure your new firm ends with the letter “r” (or should that be “lettr”?), and, Boom!, you have the now stereotypical Web 2.0 start-up. And, its fairly likely you will get cash thrown at you.

This all sounds worryingly familiar, but the first version wasn’t called Web 1.0; it was called “the dotcom bubble”. Back then, an awful lot of money was thrown at companies who ended up delivering nothing but promises and some fancy schwag.

Thankfuly, it looks like the tide might be about to change. This article at The Register describes how Tim Berners-Lee and Eben Moglen are calling for a bit of common-sense and calm to be applied to the “Web 2.0″ hype.

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Posted in rants, web2.0