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Afterglow

I kept running across general news articles that, in effect, described how some relatively small effort was met with outsized success, thanks to the internet. Someone would start a business like a real estate brokerage, or a provider of some business or personal service, and they would leverage the scalability of the internet to either spread the word or facilitate their business process. Then, the articles would have you believe they sat back while they experienced outsized results. Of course, success is never guaranteed, and I assume there was a lot of hard work and ingenuity that went unsaid in those articles, but still, here wer mainstream, real-world manifestations of the power of large numbers of interconnected people.

Big deal, right? We already know that eBay, Google, and their brethren can only be as successful as they are, indeed can only exist, because of the internet. eBay is obvious, but take a closer look at Google. Their ad platform is exploding in popularity because it allows regular Joes like you and me to participate in ways that make sense to us, on an individual basis, and that bring real value. By allowing us to take care of ourselves, the Google network can expand without the constraints that would be inherent if they relied on a sales force to chase after banner ads. At the same time, the benefit to their advertiser is likewise potentially limitless, unlike, say, a listing on eBay. Since my ad may appear on an self-expanding range of web sites, there are no real boundaries to my potential reach. It’s a powerfully virtuous cycle.

What boggles the mind is that Google’s approach, while undeniably a next-generation e-business, is nevertheless an infant idea in the life of the internet. When you consider that this new human interconnectedness is not only permanent but has yet to reach it’s potential, you can’t help but wonder agape at what changes may evolve and/or spring into being over the next few years and decades. It’s almost a given that cyberspace will change into something radically different within our lifetimes.

Anyway, such were my thoughts as last year drew to a close. Did I have too much time on my hands?