Since the beginning, the web has had a habit of deciding that certain products and services really just need one dominant brand online. The Economist coined the phrase 'technopoly' to capture this idea that society is well served by delegating certain things to institutional brands. Competition doesn't always improve the breed, see, and sometimes it complicates things. So we just kind of organically anoint a brand... that's how you get category dominant brands that appear to have built their franchises without reaching out somehow. But those brands are dangerous models. The information superhighway - remember that, all you Negroponte fans? - is littered with the smoking hulks of wonderful businesses that thought they could make it happen with just three of the four Ps. In a quarter of a century of doing this brand stuff, I can tell you I have never not once seen a business succeed in a competitive category without telling the world about itself somehow. If a business idea can build a franchise without competing for attention, then what you have there is a commodity waiting to happen. It pains me to see all the Cluetrainers heading over the same cliff as their predecessors. I just want to give them all a big hug and say, 'guys, really, if you're respectful and truthful, people actually like it when you tell them about yourself. It makes them feel like they matter.'