In this interesting post, John Dvorak traces a series of technology bubbles and posits that each has had a bigger “Pop” than the preceding bubbles. All of this is interesting. However, he then goes on to say that Web 2.0 will cause a even larger Bubble 2.0 “Pop”. Nice headline, but I guess I don’t see it as he does.
I look at the Web 2.0 technologies as being a series of tools that are incremental enhancements to the way we have been doing business for years. Blogging, RSS, Tags, and Wiki’s are all collaboration tools that are a step more advanced that shares documents, e-mails, conference calls, and file servers. The advancements in search technologies and the installation of search tools at the desktop level, the intra-organizational level, and the inter-organizational level has made finding and retrieving documents a much simpler process.
Why do these technology tools have a bubble coming to them?
Okay, so will the bubble burst on the social networks that are forming each week? Sure, there can’t be an endless stream of new social networks, right? But, are these really being hyped up to the degree the Dot Com firms were hyped up 7 – 9 years ago? I don’t think so.
Bottom line, I don’t see a bubble here at all, with the possible exception of a small one around the myriad of social networks.
Posted by steinthal 
