Enter Active Server Pages! Web sites began to interact with databases and the face of "the net" was forever changed. Web sites were now more and more solely designed by programmers and became applications instead of publications. Design was pushed out along with images and written content. The style was ultralite and ultra bare. They became software and looked like software. They were now even run by programmers. The web lost it's rebellious spirit, charm and "wildcat" origin.
Enter dot coms and venture capital - a match made in Wall Street board rooms. Most of the dot coms had no product; hence all of the marketing was for the stock itself. The product was a piece of the future and its resultant stock value. Offices were rented and large staffs were hired because investors loved body counts. A busy staff zipping around from cubicle to cubicle gave the appearance of something going on. But what was going on? Nothing but programming - millions of dollars worth of it. Never mind the red ink; this was the wave of the future. Well, the time came for a reality check and pump and dumpers were no longer fooling anyone. The moms and pops were broke. Tomorrow never came.
Enter the reaper to cull the herd, and as the rug was pulled out from under the masses of dot com-ers, they hit the ground with a resounding thud. The careening dot-comet had crashed to Earth and ended the age of the designosaurs! Sell the Viper and move back in with mom and dad.
In the end there are no Internet "jobs". The designers are back working out of their bedrooms or garages. The programmers are back working for T. Rowe Price, and the like, again building databases for stock transactions and banking.
The moral of the story - be nice to the little people as you soar past them on an updraft, they might one day pity you and cushion your fall!.....Michael Walls
Context: — article written in 2001 during the great internet crash