Microsoft's Impact on Web 2.0

"Ten years ago Bill Gates told his company, 'The Internet is a tidal wave. It changes the future. That widely cited memo helped fuel the dot-com boom, Web 1.0. A Gates memo revealed last week confirms that Web 2.0 has arrived. “This is an except from the beginning of a highly read and hotly debated article appearing in Investor's Business Daily. The article was written in response to an internal memo that was "leaked" to the press. This memo has an accompanying note that was issued by Ray Ozzie.

What can we make of Microsoft's public epiphany? Simple--the world is changing. Web 2.0 is real. This is not to be taken lightly. This public declaration has effectively triggered a period of sustained innovation that will surely shock the world. The Redmond-based software giant has restructured their entire company to respond to the threat associated with the massive proliferation of web-based services that threaten to displace the crown jewels that Microsoft has historically controlled in the old world of the desktop. They have declared that they are moving their billion dollar empire towards the vision espoused by the Web 2.0 community and fueled by Google, Flickr, and Delicious. Appropriately, Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie, a recognized innovator in the groupware and collaborative software space has been hand-picked by Microsoft to lead the charge into Internet services.

Ih short folks, next year will be an amazing time for software. We have seen the first round of homegrown web-based services reignite innovation on the Internet. A larger round of investment is being issued as we speak. The next round of companies will unleash the true power of a service-oriented web. Couple this round of innovation with the incumbent battle brewing between technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, Sun, Yahoo, Comcast, and IBM and it is clear that this new wave will be, to say the least, disruptive. Unlike previous battles, this one is for all the bananas--the web as a global platform for all information. Stay tuned for more updates. Back to work for this web-slinger.