For all the hype about web 2.0, there has yet to be much financial success as these the first couple of waves of web 2.0 startups have yet to find a proper exit via IPO or acquisition.
Today two of the more prominent and popular web 2.0 start ups made some waves.
First is a hot rumor that Google is in “late stage” talks to be acquired by Google. There are a lot of interesting story lines here as the founding team of Twitter has already worked with Google when they sold Blogger to them 5 years ago.
Also is the growing belief that Twitter is actually kind of search engine 2.0. Confused? I don’t blame you, but bare with me. When news breaks and the press (tv and online) move to cover the story, Twitter is churning covering the story in real time with real people.
Below a screenshot of searching twitter last week seconds after a mini earthquake shook the Bay area.
This is nothing new as Twitter has broken stories like plane crashes, major corporate announcements, and breaking sports stories.
Also companies are now using it to track feedback and buzz about their brand and products. Salesforce even has a plugin for Twitter as well.
In a nuthsell a search engine like Google tells How The World is while Twitter can tell you what’s happening right now.
The are conflicting reports of how serious the talks are and if Google is just looking for a general partnership. Regardless, its encouraging to see Google testing the water to see if there is a viable option to work with Twitter. This is the company that sacked up to buy Youtube and make some intriguing investments in Blogger, DoubleClick, and FeedBurner. Check out the full list of acquisitions here.
In other news Digg unveiled their new Digg bar. Below is a great short video by Kevin Rose explaining what it is.
DiggBar from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.
Digg really hasn’t done anything big in the last year, so this was a positive step forward for them. You can try the Digg bar yourself by just typing digg.com/ in front of any url you are viewing. By doing so you:
– get a tiny url (great for shortening urls for Twitter)
– see total diggs, comments, and view counts.
– are able to tap into other Digg news etc.
Overall pretty cool and hopefully something that gets them closer to a substantial exit. It was about 8 months ago when Digg was also rumored to be in acquisition talks with Google which fell apart.
