Google's shares have soared past the $700 mark, up a remarkable 20 percent during the past month. Facebook received an investment from Microsoft, which puts the valuation of the social networking operation in excess of $15B.

Some nervous Nellies fret that Google and Facebook are indications that the Web 2.0 bubble is set to burst? No way.

More savvy observers concerned about Dot-Com Bust II have their eyes glued to MyCatSpace.com, the interactive social community for felines and their “owners.” That's right. Think MySpace for Felix.

John Heilemann writes in the Oct. 28 New York Magazine that it “doesn’t require a Mensa-level IQ to make the case that the Web 2.0 boom is in fact a bubble.”

He ticks off the glut in venture capital: $3.4B invested in fledgling Internet firms in 07 and a frothy run-up in the Nasdaq before getting to the heart of the matter.
“And then there’s the flood of derivative, dum-dum start-ups inducing a severe case of dot-com déjŕ vu. To wit: MyCatSpace.com.”


That's the tabby site that allows users to “upload photos, write your very own kitty blog, leave comments, search for cat pals and much much more.” [Full disclosure: my wife brought home a cat and I assume it lived a happy 15 years. This blogger would never have thought about posting pictures or videos of Jessie on the MyCatSpace site.]

MyCatSpace makes legendary dot-com flop, Pets.Com, look like a business plan written up by the best and the brightest of Harvard Business School.

Heilemann was gracious enough to avoid mentioning MyCatSpace.com’s sister operation, MyDogSpace.com, where people can “discuss dog issues, bark to their neighbors and find doggy pals.” [Forget it, Ruby.]

Henry Blodget, the former Merrill Lynch Internet analyst who settled a fraud case with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a little more charitable to MyCatSpace.com than Heilemann.

At the August launch of the kitty site, Blodget, a blogger at Silicon Alley Insider, wrote:
“Maybe there are hundreds of thousands of people who want to google at pictures of each other’s pets all day. In fact, there probably are. So it will be Bubble 2.0 when there are seven of each of these things and they’re all venture funded.”


Let’s hope MyCatSpace doesn't have nine lives (e.g., imitators). One site is more than enough. A quick visit to the MyCatSpace site shows there are no “meows” (votes) for the nine cats nominated for the “cool cats” award. That’s good news for all of us.