You know an idea has either hit the mainstream and/or headed downhill when a major news magazine puts it on the cover. Well, Newsweek has finally discovered Web 2.0 with a cover story on how the "live Web" is thriving and making people forget about the dot-com boom. Here's an example of how Newsweek has enthusiastically embraceds Web 2.0.:
    "What makes the Web alive is, quite simply, us. Our presence, most often conducted at the speed of broadband, is constant and mandatory. Thanks to our activity, the Web has replaced phone books, and is in the process of replacing phones. It's the place that answers our questions in four tenths of a second and ships us funny clips that mix the "Back to the Future" guys with the "Brokeback Mountain" soundtrack. It's the main news source for the non-arthritic population, and a megaphone for those who make their own media. As we keep offloading our activities to the Web and adding previously unmanageable or unthinkable new pursuits, it's fair to say that our everyday exist-ence is a network effect. That has made some splendid opportunities for smart, nimble new companies, and threatened the existence of old ones now afloat in the mainstream."
   While you can criticize Newsweek for coming late to a party that has been raging for more than a year, I guess it is encouraging to see the spotlight on the real power of the Web as a dynamic place to "do" things. When I co-founded Blanketware Corp. in 2001, we made a huge bet on "do" but we were unfortunately three or four years ahead of the curve. Today, the Web has become an integral part of how we live, work and play. In many cases, we don't even think about it anymore. When you go to Canada411 or BigYellow.com to look up a phone number, it means the Web has grabbed another part of your everyday activity.
   My only concern about Newsweek's "discovery" is it could give people the impression the dot-com boom (and, potentially, the bubble) is back again - rather than delivering the message that what we're now  seeing now is the Internet's real potential starting to emerge.
Paul Kedrosky describes the Newsweek story as "terrifying" because I think he's worried it could breath life back into the term "Web 2.0". Scott Karp weighs in as well with a sharp, but accurate, post that starts with : "how deeply iron that, despite thousands of blog pages devoted to Web 2.0, it took stodgy old Newsweek to bring the hype to the masses".
Update: As a shameless plug, the mesh conference in Toronto is focused on how Web 2.0 is impacting how we live, work and play. Kedrosky is delivering a keynote so perhaps he'll cite the Newsweek story as an example - good or bad - of what's happening on the Web.