Been a while…

Back into the flow of things. Here’s what I’ve noticed lately.

What’s changed?

Not a whole lot. Innovation appears to be on a temporary hiatus. Yahoo is trying its best to be the belle of the ball, but is ending up only as the last-call cougar. I don’t care if it’s Googlehoo, Microhoo, Yahoogle or whatever mashup you want to call it, it’s still going to be “contextual” ads in the way of my Internet search.

I like Google not for its results, but for the fact that to search for something, I type it into my Firefox space and it gives me what I want. So, whatever happens, keep making Mozilla rich so I can keep using the quick search.

Social networking fatigue

I’m not fatigued of the act of social networking, I’m fatigued of the myriad Web sites I feel it necessary to register as /geekgiant or what have you. Here’s my proposal.

We all love Twitter (when it works). We’ve all settled on FriendFeed as a way to abandon RSS sharing. And we all seem to have a LinkedIn profile. Let’s call it a day. It’s time for the Web to be used for something useful. How about a network for managing emergency responses. Or how about a CMS that has a reality check built in for poor writers. Another idea I have is for a Customer Relationship Management that is usable by, well, everybody.

Just an idea.

Where to go

I think that what the IPO bubble was to Web 1.0, consolidation will be to Web 2.0. We’re going to see makers of widgets get absorbed into the social networks they serve. I think we’ll see some of the proprietary Web app creation tools such as Coghead or Bungee Labs dissolve and I think that some of the blogs will consolidate as well.

We’re in the birth of a new economy. The Web is the platform for innovation and I’m excited to see where we go.