October 25th, 2007
Open source market getting frothy, Paglo?
Back in the 1990s, when the Internet market was getting frothy, we got many neat prize packages delivered to my home.
I was then, as I am now, essentially a freelance writer, of no real consequence. But Budweiser actually sent me a 12-pack of beer to celebrate the opening of their Web site. (They didn’t know that’s illegal in Georgia, and I got rid of the evidence.)
I also remember getting clothes, CDs, and tons of silly toys from the UPS truck. My kids, who were smaller then, looked forward to these deliveries. Our family still wears the clothes of that era. I recently shocked a new neighbor by wearing a shirt for HearMe — seems he once worked there. He’s in real estate now.
Happy days are here again. Late last night, out on the lawn I heard such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
It wasn’t Santa, but my old friend the UPS driver with a box from Paglo, an IT search engine due for debut November 19. Packed carefully with the invitation to call were some presents — a box of sour candy, a big box of chocolate covered espresso beans, and a bottle of Jolt Cola.
My little girl, who is now 19, grabbed the beans. The Jolt is in my fridge waiting for my next fade out. My teenage son will likely get the sours. We’re all pretty jazzed by it.
Paglo will compete in a market now growing with such sites as Krugle, Koders, Google Code, All the Code, Sourceforge, and such resources as we have here at C|Net. (Modesty forbids much detail, suffice to say we like to serve developers here.)
But the skeptic in me couldn’t help wondering…are we headed for another crash? Is this market getting a bit overheated? Did we learn anything from the dot-bomb?
And do reindeer really know how to fly?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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