This year I mean it -- its a bubble!

We live our lives by routines.  In January, we all make resolutions for the new year.  In November, we give thanks for the bounty of the harvest at Thanksgiving.  And for those in the tech industry, in October we go to the Web 2.0 Conference and try to outdo each other with our declarations of "Bubble 2.0".

Today's NY Times story declares that "Silicon Valley’s math is getting fuzzy again."  This sounds somewhat similar to their story last year which concluded that: "Web 2.0...has in recent months become the focus of dot-com-style hype in Silicon Valley..."

As people leave the conference this evening to write their obligatory "we're in a bubble" story, I thought it would be helpful to provide them with examples from the last few years, so they can find new ways to express the same thoughts...

2004

"To be sure, conference organizers seemed aware of the possibility of a looming hype machine. One panel early Wednesday featured stock analysts mulling the thesis: Is it a bubble yet?" - CNet News.com

"The web is entering another bubble of optimism..." - Read/Write Web

"No greater shroud hangs over Web 2.0 then the fear that we'll repeat the financial mistakes of the past..." - IT Conversations

"The Web 2.0 conference was an online lovefest, where an array of speakers repeated that the Internet is still in its infancy. A panel of financial analysts and venture capitalists questioned whether the industry is going through another bubble.." - SF Chronicle

 

2005

“The industry is still tingling from the loud and sweaty Bubble 2.0 — whoops, excuse me, Web 2.0 — conference here late last week.” - USA Today

“No Web 2.0 Bubble? Hmmm.... even the backers of the recent Web 2.0 conference warned that things were getting frothy” - Business Week

"I heard many people say it felt very bubblelike. in fact, every party or event seemed like a lead in to this topic." - Mark Pincus

“What was a budding movement three years ago, at the dawn of the revival in technology, internet, and silicon valley, has become a full blown mania.” - Fred Wilson

"At the Web 2.0 conference, I'm sensing the buzz of a bubble" - Read/Write Web

2006

"Are we in a bubble? Absolutely" - Read/Write Web

"Web 2.0 was the same dance all over again: this tech bubble, boomy, exuberant thing that happens when money hangs like a bumper crop in an orchard.  At the conference, I swear there was a ka-ching sound in every techie's step." - USA Today

"For industry players, many of whom lived through the dot-com crash, the surging wave of new Web companies and the corresponding media buzz can mean only one thing: an investment bubble where too much money is chasing too few good ideas." - CNet News.com

"(Did someone say bubble? Not at this conference, please!)" - SFgate.com

"It isn’t dot-com bubble level, I’m told, but darn close." - Forbes

 

Even a broken clock is right two times a day.  By proclaiming a bubble every year, everyone can say they "called it."