Web 2.0: Some Observations

At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco...

-- Probably 5,000 people here, jammed together like sardines in a Sponge Bob episode. Heard one attendee remark: "This is like a Southwest flight!"

-- Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a kid. He really is a kid. Yes, I know he's 23 and running the hottest property on the Web right now, so he's obviously got some mojo going on. But on stage, being interviewed by wily veteran John Battelle, "Zuck" (as his cool insiders call him) seemed like young man trying to talk to his date's father. It didn't help that he wore a hoody, jeans and shower sandals.

His answers were typically clipped and enigmatic. Battelle asked if Facebook would develop its own applications to run on its platform. Zuck: "Might be something in ads." Stop. Awkward pause.

-- Marissa Mayer, who manages just about everything consumers use on Google, spoke vaguely about a coming Google Health offering, giving few details. A couple years ago, Marissa hinted to me that Google might be doing a Google Health type thing, and I wrote about it. Then Google instead announced Google Co-op, a health site that, to my knowledge, no one uses. Marissa kind of publicly chastised at the Co-op unveiling for jumping the gun -- apparently, by two years.

-- Nokia has tried for years to make a Blackberry/Treo killer. Here, it unveiled the N810 -- yet another attempt.

-- Ted Leonsis talked about the only new thing I've seen here so far that I actually want to try. This is the Revolution Card.

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