To Tech News Now...

The big story this week is that Google has bought YouTube. Google paid $US1.65 billion for the company, far in excess of even the $US580 million which Rupert Murdoch paid for MySpace back in July.

The thing is, only a few weeks ago, the tech press were falling over themselves to write off YouTube as an investment, citing the fact that YouTube is likely to face huge law suits, a la Napster, due to it's breach of copyright laws. Mark Curran even famously declared that "only a moron would buy You Tube".

Now though, they're lauding Google's investment. Either the tech press are in Google's pocket, accepting pressure from Google not to run stories that affect the company's value...or they just like jumping on the "If Google says it, it must be good!" bandwagon.

Seriously though, why can't I think of some innovative internet phenomena that would acquire a cult following, go mainstream, and allow me to sell it for millions? It wouldn't necessarily have to make any money - after all, it's hard to see how Google will recoup their investment from YouTube. They can't make that much money selling advertising space, and what else is there? Selling user subscriptions? They always work real well. No, you just need the visitor numbers, and worry about raising revenue later.

So if anyone would like to help me out here, with an idea for the latest internet fad, please let me know. I promise when we get bought by one of the "big boys", I'll give you a generous percent of our multi-million dollar windfall!

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