The New Boom

DarkClown writes "Wired is running a piece discussing the recovery from the burst Bubble in Silicon Valley. This time, though, it's no Bubble: it's a Boom. They suggest that this latest boom, fueled by Google's ascent, is under steadier footing than last time. Technology and the market seems to be catching up to the hype." From the article: "A boom perhaps, but not (phew!) a bubble. There's a difference. Bubbles are inflated with hot air and speculation. They end with a wet pop, leaving behind messy splatters. Booms, on the other hand, tend to have strong foundations and gentle conclusions. Bubbles can be good: They spark a huge amount of investment that can make things easier for the next generation, even as they bankrupt the current one. But booms - with their more rational allocation of capital - are better. The problem is that exuberance can make it hard to tell one from the other."

Comments

Infrastructure not old business model

[Flying pig]

Amazon is (just) a department store that runs over the Web. All its tricks are just derivatives of the way that traditional department stores operated - hosting stores within stores, customer accounts, POS advertising. It arose at a time when the infrastructure did not really exist to support it. Google is an enabling technology. It is funded through advertising, but it is something fundamentally new. I'm in the process of completing a personal engineering project. When I look at the stuff I have had to learn and the technology I have had to acquire, it's probable that without Google and the Internet it would have taken several times longer and not worked so well. As for my day job, it would be nearly impossible.

Google shares are possibly over-hyped, but they reflect a very interesting perception: that the Internet is now good for something, but that we don't know where it is going. We had the mass transit revolution (railways), the personal transit revolution (bicycles, then cars), the communications revolution (telephony.) Now we have the information revolution, and anyone who looks like they are reading meaningful signposts is likely to be highly valued.

Definition of a Bubble

[LukePieStalker]

You know it's a bubble when people are calling it a "boom".

Re:Oh, no hot air, I see...

[Anonymous Coward]

PS- has anyone ever clicked on a google ad? I haven't.

Oh, even if you don't click on them, they're still worth something to the advertiser.

For example, if I search for "poop" on google, then perhaps an ad will show up saying "Search for poop on eBay!"

Even if I don't click on the ad, I may happen to read it. This will improve eBay's brand recognition, since it will cause me to think of eBay whenever I see poop.