Metafluence

Cashing in on Web 2.0

In September of 1969, node 1 of the Internet was brought online at UCLA. Over the next 25 years, the Internet grew to 3 million servers interconnected across the globe. Much of the online activity during that time was focused on creating the foundation for the Internet. But, then something unexpected happened around 1994.

The World Wide Web hit the Internet.

A mere one year later, the Internet more than doubled to 7 million servers and thus began the era of Web 1.0, which connected people to information like the world had never seen in it’s history before. Explosive growth and speculation culminated in the dot com bust of 2001 and many people claimed the Internet was over hyped and would be nothing more than place for porn and email.

Stirring in the ashes were a strong few that knew the Internet had simply gone through a period of misunderstanding brought on by the onslaught of undereducated prospectors trying to make the Internet into something it is not. Left with a massively expanded Internet and plummeting connectivity costs, the visionaries ushered the Web through a beautiful metamorphises into what is currently being labeled “Web 2.0″, which goes beyond connecting people to information by connecting people to people. Only 3 years after the dot com bust, Google proved that there is more money to be made on the Internet than ever previously speculated by holding one of the largest IPOs in the history of American business—bringing in over two billion dollars. Coming from virtual left field, MySpace stomped on the scene to become the #1 volume traffic website in the world—beating out all of the Web giants like Yahoo!, Google, eBay, and Amazon.

In this amazing time in history; people, businesses, and governments are being redefined by a medium that was never intended to become the juggernaut that it has become. This is a time of giant slayers. This is a time of where there is more opportunity available on the Internet than ever before…if….you understand it.

As my brief history intimates above, the Internet was not invented, it happened. It doesn’t take a psychology degree to put together the driving force behind it, which is that people crave connection with other people. All of the Web 2.0 developments revolve around that truth. If you want to cash in on the wave, then build things that enable and encourage person to person connection.