When the 20-somethings are doing it...

... you know you're on to something.

Business Week has a fabulous article in its August 14th edition on the new "Valley Boys." These are the wonder kids of Silicon Valley that are on the way to make millions of dollars every time they breath. The websites these 20-somethings have put together (Digg.com, PayPal, MySpace, FaceBook, etc. etc.) are among the fastest growing on the internet.

What is most interesting about these sites, from my perspective, is they ALL have that "Web 2.0 thing" going on. They engage the user by allowing them to create their own content wherever, however and whenever they wish. Digg.com, for example, allows users to "dig up" interesting stories that are then rated on the site based on how many people found it interesting. It's being touted as a the practical application of Google's rating mechanism based on links. I think it's more appropriately called the "engagist" application -- allowing consumers, not computers, to decide what they want to read.

Also compelling is the fact that many of these sites will be supported by ad revenue -- more important, ad revenue that recognizes the new environment. These ads are not pushy and are more targeted toward the individual subscriber. And, as Business Week points out, Digg.com subscribers are in that demographic that the marketing world "salivates over" -- the upper middle-income adult (or as much of an adult as we can be with 20 years olds running the world).

Engagism isn't coming folks -- it's here. And if you want to be successful, you better understand what it's all about.

Access the article here: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_33/b3997001.htm?chan=search