crash 2.0

with news of google’s recent purchase of youtube, there are whispers that this is a little too reminiscent of the dot-com bubble and subsequent crash of the late 90s. but aside from the large amount of stock on the table, it’s nothing like the past. the dot-com crash wasn’t simply caused by the large deals between big names, it was a result of all the small- and medium-sized deals that were all style and no substance. at a time when everyone was “discovering” the web and trying to create the next amazon or yahoo, every half-assed scheme was greenlit by venture capitalists. it didn’t matter how you got there, because you’d get $3 million just to try. business strategies took a distant second to hype and/or superbowl commercials. it was a fun time to be in the business, but it made the downfall that much more harsh.

today’s web is vastly different in one key area: people are no longer stupid. the general public is no longer enamored with the web – browsing is not the exciting new experience full of wonder and joy it once was. these days, it’s more like stopping in the mini mart to pay for your gas – you get in, pick up a mountain dew, maybe poke through their crappy magazines, and get out.

this is a good thing, because the web has resorted to what it was meant to be: 70% information, 30% fluff. it’s a direct result of necessity, because today’s audience has no patience. witness the death of the intro video. remember those? they were flashy but useless, and 9 times out of 10 you wished you could’ve found the “skip intro” button sooner. now, content is king. we have standards that may or may not be followed, and interaction design is making waves in influencing the usability of sites so you don’t have to dig to find what you’re looking for.

web technologies have also grown tremendously in the past 6 years. web applications can now replace your photo album, word processor, your spreadsheet, and your notebook and planner. once upon a time, 56k was the standard; those with a cable modem or T1 were the lucky few. now that the opposite is true, on-demand video has become a reality. no site knows this better than youtube, #1 in terms of online video, and monday’s announced partnership with cbs/viacom, sony music, and universal will only strengthen their position. thanks to their new friends, you can expect all of the questions about copyright-infringement to disappear. youtube will continue to grow, and now with google’s search tie-in, could very well become just as ubiquitous.