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 By Chris Taylor TIME Technology Correspondent |
(CNN) -- For the world of technology, 1999 was a year of unassailable confidence. With the Internet gold rush in full flow, thousands of us have been seduced by the promise of paper riches at the end of the online rainbow.
Neither Y2K fears, nor malevolent computer viruses, nor even the possible break-up of the world's largest software company could distract us from our dot-com dreams.
Start-up fever has cut across boundaries of class and fame and power. It is not just geeks and MBAs populating the offices of Silicon Alley and Valley. It is Dr. Koop, Martha Stewart and Michael Ovitz.
We are the prize
At the Super Bowl in January, dot-com TV ads were a novelty; by Thanksgiving, our screens seemed filled with little else. No wonder e-commerce revenues are set to triple this holiday season.
It is not just about convenience. There are more web-dwellers than ever -- 200 million of us by millennium's end. We are the real reason for the dot-com explosion.
We are the prize Wall Street, Madison Avenue and Hollywood lust after. Our word-of-mouth has the power to make a hit movie (think "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Omega Code"), sink a hot stock, or even pluck an unsuspecting Turkish journalist called Mahir from obscurity and make him world-famous in a matter of days. Andy Warhol would be proud.
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Sure, sometimes our constant connectedness does more harm than good. In March, the e-mail virus called Melissa clogged up company networks and cost the economy millions, all because victims were unwittingly passing it on to 50 of their closest friends.
But the Internet struck back, and a bizarre coalition of online virus hunters, America Online and the FBI helped nail Melissa's author less than a week after he struck. Even justice has adjusted to Internet time.
The Web as a way of life
Cyberspace has become all embracing at a speed that surprised even the optimists. Four years ago, Bill Gates barely recognized the Internet's existence. This year, Microsoft announced its intention to focus exclusively on Web services.
Two years ago, a stir was caused when the judge's decision in the Louise Woodward case was released online. But when Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of fact against Microsoft appeared in November, we took it for granted to turn to the Web.
One year ago, we would have laughed at the idea of companies offering free PCs or no-cost Internet access. Now we only wonder why, in the give-away-the-store craziness of dot-com culture, nobody thought of this before.
It was the year that "day trader" and "MP3" entered the common lexicon. It was the year video games sales, boosted by the success of online gaming, started to overtake sales of movie tickets.
It was the year that Bill Clinton became the first U.S. president in history to take part in an online chat, only to attract significantly less interest than a competing chat with Britney Spears.
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And it was the year that people started to surf the net on their cell phones, their pagers -- even, with the arrival of the Sega Dreamcast, their game consoles.
The rise of networked devices prompted some commentators to proclaim the PC's demise. In the light of the roaring success of machines like Apple's iMac, however, it seems reports of the death of desktop computing have been greatly exaggerated.
Ready for a wild ride?
As we barrel into 2000, these questions beg for answers:
Will the Y2K bug bite hard enough to bring back familiar feelings of technofear? Can Microsoft look forward to the pitter-patter of Baby Bills? Will Amazon.com ever make a profit, and how long will Wall Street ignore the bottom line? Can anything halt the rise and rise of the Internet?
That last one, at least, is unlikely. We have too much invested in our dot-com dreams to turn back now. Better get ready for a wild ride.
Chris Taylor writes about technology, computer games and the Internet for TIME magazine and Time Digital. He can be reached at cdt@well.com.