Web 2.1: Business 2.0’s Next Net 25

Business 2.0 has identified their first Next Net 25: 25 Web 2.0 companies that they think will make it big in the near future (months, not years). I call them Web 2.1. They are cool, smart, useful, and in many cases, profitable (or at least able to become so). Check them out here.

Some of my favorites: Joost, Turn, Vitrue, Fon, SuccessFactors

Ning: Create your own social network

Ning is the brainchild of Marc Andreesssen, one of the creators of Mosaic and a co-founder of Netscape. It’s an amazing playground for social networks. Basically, any user can use Ning’s ridiculously simple interface to create their own private social network which can include photo and video sharing, discussion forums, tagging and social bookmarking, and blogs, as well as a fully customizable look and feel for each social network. Ning goes beyond that and makes the source code for your social network open for your to tinker with. You can basically customize your social network virtually any way you want.

This is yet another great example of the rebirth of the web as a platform. For years, decades actually, the building of applications has been the domain of technogeeks, engineers, and computer scientists. More and more, they are being relegated to the background, building not applications, but the infrastructure that allows everyone else, the non-geeks, to build their own applications. The interface is becoming simple enough, that it’s like putting together lego pieces. In fact, it’s easier. There’s no guess work as to what fits where.

So now, the 12-year-old girl who wants to build her own social network for girl-fans and boy-fans of the shoes worn by the latest American Idol contestants, can do it in just a few minutes. Before you know it, and if word spreads around, who knows? She may find herself with a thriving business of a niche social network site that even makes money. How? The old-fashioned way. Running ads by Google.