Posted by harold at November 14th, 2007

Facebook. Digg. Google. Three companies I’ve heard way too much about this past week. Oddly enough, those names all have at least three things in common (good things come in threes… yeah right): they’re headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, they depend on the social factor (read: the online equivalent of STDs), and finally, they’re all wrapped up in the whole advertising thing. Not to mention, out of the three companies I mentioned, only Google ever even had any technology worth mentioning to back up their infamy. Of course Google too is now practically cruising on search and spending ridiculous wads of cash on promoting other projects (read: AdSense). This whole Web 2.0 mindset of “we need more ads to get more money” has quite tragically far surpassed all true innovation in the Valley.

Google is not the worst offender in this market. Earlier this week in New York City, Facebook announced its Social Ads program, which is apparently a behavioral-targeting system for advertisers. Every time some worthless syphilis-infected Facebook user decides to buy some useless trinket, a notification of that purchase will be broadcast across their Facebook buddies’ news feeds. Sounds great doesn’t it? As if Facebook weren’t already privacy invasion central. Of course all the company executives invited to the launch event loved the idea. Even my local crack dealer down on the corner told me this “will give Google a run for its money.” And speaking of coke, now you can even add products like Coca-Cola as your dearest dearest friend. Thanks Facebook! I don’t know about you, but when was the last time you considered your can of Coke “social?” I mean heroin or something, sure. But soda pop?

All those ads-that-pay-for-everything are pretty stupid. So’s all the attention surrounding these halfwit Web 2.0 startups. Recently, everybody was circulating rumors about how Digg was considered to be an acquisition target by Yahoo. Who gives a damn? Digg is just another web startup with a pretty large user base submitting stories. Heck, if you added up the IQs of all of its users, it may even be a little above 10 by now. Hallelujah! What’s the difference between Digg and a waterlogged phonebook? Not a whole lot. I’d much rather be pruning my exquisite collection of Bonsai Trees. With fingernail clippers, no less.

But this all brings up some bigger questions: what’s wrong with this picture? What has happened to technology? Half a century after the rise of Silicon Valley as a breeding ground for innovative technology-oriented companies, have we hit a pothole the size of Jupiter? Is this the best Silicon Valley can come up with? Top tier companies fighting over advertising surface area for Joe-Bob’s snail training guide and “Enlarge Your Leprechaun in 35 Days!”? Whatever happened to the legendary competition between AMD and Intel, E. coli and Jack in the Box, heck evem Netscape and Microsoft’s (incredibly lame) Internet Explorer? Quite plainly, the Valley has been flooded with yet-another-poorly-designed-web-2.0-social website (and clones thereof). Where have all the techboys gone?

To be continued…