Web 2.0: Making money

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SCOTT JAGOW: A bunch of techies gathered in San Francisco this week for a Web 2.0 summit. Their focus: How to turn some of the hot new websites into cash cows. Here’s Rachel Dornhelm:

RACHEL DORNHELM: One of the organizers of the Summit, Tim O’Reilly, coined the term Web 2.0 a few years ago.

He says it refers to the way software applications are becoming less about the PC and more about the Internet.

TIM O’REILLY: They’re becoming almost like living things they’re in dynamic conversation with their users where they’re growing they’re changing they’re adapting.

Think YouTube or Facebook. But the big change at this year’s conference, says software consultant Stephen O’Grady, is that there aren’t just creative ideas floating around . . .

STEPHEN O’GRADY: They’re good ideas with business models. Now these business models may not work, but at least that’s the plan.

Given the pace of technology those models better be farsighted. A Web 2.2 conference takes place today. And if you Google Web 3.0, you get over a million hits.

I’m Rachel Dornhelm for Marketplace.