SF Chronicle on Web 2.0

So, what’s next? Why, Web 2.0, naturally: A quick pointer to a San Francisco Chronicle article which runs down a broad definition of Web 2.0 and highlights a few companies in the space. Not sure the title of the article is right though – ‘what happens next for Web 2.0?’ is more the question on our minds. Some VCs are slavering over these companies, while others are already heading for the hills. It’s not an easy one – these firms can build a large community with little capital, but how can they monetize that community? They can’t all sell to Yahoo, Google, eBay, InterActive Corp et al, and users have so much choice they might not be willing to pay for premium services – even the $1 or $2 hits many of them tout as their main (future) income source.

What’s certain though is that these technologies will have a far reaching affect on everything from news sites, to web services like online banking, to enterprise software. Yes, even enterprise software will be impacted by Web 2.0 mainstays like tagging, rss, AJAX etc. Hmm, perhaps the title was correct after all.