PUBLIC MARKS with tag dotcom

The irrational exuberance of the dotcom boom was no more eloquently summed up than during the US Super Bowl in late January 2000 when more than a dozen internet firms spent millions of dollars buying 30-second advertising slots.

On the fifth anniversary of the dotcom collapse, Chris Alden reflects on the hysteria and hubris that fuelled the boom

The companies that burned through the most VC money to the least effect

What were we thinking? And how can we avoid thinking like that again?

1969: Arpanet, US-backed forerunner of the internet, goes live. 1973: Two US researchers devise protocol, to allow development of single-network Arpanet into multi-network internet. 1980: Tim Berners-Lee, at particle research station Cern, devises rules to start world wide web, and allow easy travel around the internet. ...

On 10 March 2000 the Nasdaq index of leading technology shares spiked, burst the dotcom bubble and sent entrepreneurial dreams crashing back to earth.

The "dot-com bubble" was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1997–2001 in which stock markets in Western nations saw their value increase rapidly from growth in the new Internet sector and related fields.

We all know the plushy, rounded, pastel-coloured faces of Web 2.0. MySpace. Digg. Flickr. The achingly trendy Silicon Valley startups that are selling for millions to big media conglomerates and making their founders into stars. Tom Anderson. Kevin Rose. These are the pinups of the Web 2.0 generation - but little do they know the monster they've created.

Five years after the crash the economic fallout has been limited but there are fears of fresh bubbles in property, oil and commodities