Two years ago, I wrote a column about Napster which appeared in the Industry Standard with the headline, “It’s Not Dead Yet.” A federal court had just granted an injunction against Napster, which was thought to be on its last legs. As I predicted, Napster wasn’t done in 2000, because it and the music industry needed each other. Bertelsmann’s investment was the surest indication of that fact. In the end, ...

Radio Userland now has a built-in comments feature, something I’ve been waiting for. Let’s see if I can get it to work.

After taking off about a week to be with my new son, I’m now back at work. Give me a little time for active posts to resume on the Werblog, since I’ve got a whole lotta catching up to do.

I think Eli must be the youngest person in the world to have his own Weblog.

Born: May 6, 2002, 2:42pm8 lbs., 7 oz. Mom, dad and son are all doing fine. Stay tuned for more details soon, including the Little W Weblog!

Thank goodness Radio (which I use to manage this Weblog) is a network-enabled desktop application, rather than a hosted Web-based one. Userland has been experiencing a major outage for the past two days, but it hasn’t affected me at all.

This chart shows the daily closing price of the AMEX Internet Index since I joined EDventure Holdings in April 1998. At the time, I suspected we were at the end of the Internet boom, which started with the 1995 Netscape IPO. I thought that as stock mania subsided, energy would shift to figuring out what had changed and how to build real businesses. If you look closely at the chart, ...

CyberAtlas: According to a Jupiter Media Metrix study, experienced users of P2P file-trading services are 41 percent more likely than the average online music fan to have increased their music spending levels. Still more evidence that, contrary to what the recording industry says, Napster and its ilk actually stimulate spending on CDs.

Netflix is a new addition to my dotcom survivor list. (Thanks Dave Hyndman!)

I’m starting a list of dotcoms that seem to have weathered the crash of the past two years. These are Internet startups that are venture-funded, consumer-oriented, not yet public, enjoying healthy growth and profitable or nearly so. Conventional wisdom is that such a creature doesn’t exist. Off the top of my head, the initial list is: Google Keen.com (though its recent management shakeup is worrisome) LinkShare Gator (see earlier post) ...