It seems that the current mentality regarding web technology is "build an audience, sell your company, and let the buyer worry about making money." There are plenty of buyers but as far as I know none of them are making any money. This if mostly because no one has successfully figured out how to monetize web video. You can put in ads, but I know for myself, if I have to watch an ad and can't fast forward it, I won't watch the video. It's just not worth the hassle to me.
Apparently some pretty big players think differently because they are betting a lot of money on online video but I don't see it happening. Today the NY Times gave up its "Times Select" for pay news model and made everything free again. People on the internet expect free stuff.
Back in the early 1990s I told someone that the internet was great, but no one has figured out how to make money from it yet. This seemed false during the boom but the collapse reaffirmed the statement. Then the web 2.0 boom made it seem false again. And I expect that we will once again see that it is true. There are a lot of things the internet is good for - branding, online shopping, information, maps, directions - but making money through advertising is not one of them, despite what the stories about the internet advertising industry would have you believe.
It's all a house of cards. Google works because people want to see relevant search results and doesn't care if someone paid for them there. It is unobtrusive. Banner ads can be ignored, interstitial ads can not, and accordingly I hate them. Video ads would be even worse than interstitials, unless the content was something I really wanted to see, because I can barely justify spending more than 2 minutes watching a video online now, add in a commercial and I'll just pass.
And - Micro-Machine man, telling his life story:
Mash-ups and re-edits of old 80s cartoon favorites.
And something about tech tramps.
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