Comments on: Dear Web 2.0: It's Still the Economy, Stupid!

By: OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN | | Web 2.0 Meltdown? Help a Web 2.0 Company in Need

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:47:47 +0000

[...] Kara Swisher at Boomtown makes this prediction about Web 2.0 startups: ” … most will likely fizzle away quietly, with no exits in sight as the economy weakens and puts a vise grip on companies that cannot survive the very tough financial road ahead. [...]

By: BoomTown Channels Miss Cleo: A Twitter Transaction? More Facebook Follies? And Will There Finally Be a Yahoo-Microsoft Deal? | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:44:17 +0000

[...] Nonethless, it got me thinking about how I would predict what would result from all the deal-making that is suddenly in the air, after six months of ennui from the current economic downturn. [...]

By: It’s Still the Economy, Silicon Valley | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:29:46 +0000

[...] Um, nope, just as when BoomTown wrote last September in a piece called: “Dear Web 2.0: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid!” [...]

By: Rut-Roh-Scooby-Doo in Chart Form: Start-ups Start Stopping | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:00:25 +0000

[...] No really well-known Web 2.0 shooting stars are in the piece, although it really feels like a long time from when BoomTown penned a piece in September, titled “Dear Web 2.0: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid!”. [...]

By: Faol-Inc.Com - Business Company » Web 2.0 Meltdown? Help a Web 2.0 Company in Need

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:09:06 +0000

By: No, It Is Not Web 2.0’s Fault–Not That It Matters When It’s Time to Move On | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:40:16 +0000

[...] the quarter-dropping-in-the-slot was a bit slow, I think no one now doubts the impact of the tech and Internet business going forward, from large [...]

By: Dear Web 2.0: It Is the Economy, Stupid!–Part 2 | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:56:27 +0000

[...] Then in mid-September, after listening to the frothy statements at two demo conferences from a series of start-ups then, I got even grumpier in a post called “Dear Web 2.0: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid!” [...]

By: Layoff Alert: Not If

Layoff Alert: Not If — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:24:46 +0000

[...] Alert: Not If

By: Layoff Alert: Not If…When | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:01:11 +0000

[...] the economic situation obviously worsening–don’t say you weren’t warned–BoomTown has no doubt now that Internet companies are in the midst of reevaluating their [...]

By: 21st Century Spirituality · Hyperstream of 2008-09-15

21st Century Spirituality · Hyperstream of 2008-09-15 — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:39:38 +0000

[...] mushin published a blog post. Hutch Carpenter: Dear Web 2.0: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid (via Google Reader) [...]

By: Sudha Jamthe

Sudha Jamthe — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:56:59 +0000

@Sam Harrison, Demo has launched 1500 companies over the past 15yrs.

From demo’s web site, I found this -
“In just the past four years, DEMO companies have raised well over $2.5 billion dollars in the months/years following their debut at DEMO. More than 40 of these companies have been acquired by tech giants, such as Adobe, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Symantec, Viacom, Yahoo!, and more. Past participants such as WebEx, VMware, Salesforce.com, iRobot, Linden Labs, Six Apart, and Roku have single-handedly redefined their industry’s market.”

I personally recall Grandcentral acquisition by Google, Ribbit by British Telecom from recent past.

Is there someplace on the web that lists startups and their exits, that would be cool to track.

By: Sam Harrison

Sam Harrison — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:24:19 +0000

how many of demos’ presenting companies have been acquired? demo has been around a long time and it would strengthen your writing to add some facts to it rather than just very obvious commentary…perspective with facts is always preferred

By: A positive take on digital revenue in a credit-crunch era « These Digital Times

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:16:13 +0000

[...] 17, 2008 · No Comments All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher makes clear in two postings, Dear Web2.0: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid! and Layoffs Hit Silicon Valley: HP Today, Who Tomorrow?, that neither Web 2.0 start-ups or more [...]

By: Layoffs Hit Silicon Valley: H-P Today, Who Tomorrow? | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:15:52 +0000

[...] as I wrote yesterday in post called “Dear Web 2.0: It’s the Economy, Stupid,” the frightening gyrations of the financial markets will surely impact Silicon Valley, as much as [...]

By: Norbert Mayer-Wittmann

Norbert Mayer-Wittmann — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:17:30 +0000

Good article, very reasonable — and I totally agree!

I think a significant part of the problem has to do with the way “technology” is bandied about as a “unit cost” (which is, as we may think, constantly decreasing according to Moore’s law).

However, “technology” goes far beyond mere bits — and measuring it is (as my economics professor once poignantly pointed out to me as we were discussing Schumacher) basically just as difficult as measuring a unit of labor.

Whether or not technology can be easily measured, I feel the skew created by Google’s algorithms is finally coming to an end (and it’s about time! …. We already have many indications that the extreme aberration that resulted from too many people believing too much in Google’s algorithms — as if the engine were some sort of oracle — is now turning around and the pendulum may soon return to more reasonable attention to details such as logic, natural language approaches to classification, and editorial oversight. An algorithm that “plays with” billions of dollars overnight (the way it seems to have happened with Google/United) is a tell-tale sign that it’s time to get back to some fundamental basics in order and leave the pie-in-the-sky stuff about sophisticated cloud schemes with convoluted EULAs out of the question for the time being.