Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0

The author describes new profit opportunities for the world wide web. For instance, there are new web companies, social networks, myspace, utube, the facebook online picture directory and a plethora of other modalities. These new companies and processes are natural outgrowths of Silicon Valley. Digg.com provides a practical way of voting on important news issues of the day. Slide provides for a customized or virtual self. The work will provide an important business perspective to the new web technologies available to the public in virtually every area of expertise.

This book is a fun and insightful read for anyone looking to learn more about Web 2.0 and the culture of Silicon Valley right now. Sarah Lacy spends a lot of time with the subjects in her book which make the details very detailed and interesting. Enjoyed it from start to finish.

A great read for people in the bubble, and those outside looking in. As someone who has spent almost a decade deeply immersed in the strangeness that is Silicon Valley, I appreciate that Sarah has written a book that is knowledgeable without being too much 'inside baseball.' She takes care to avoid assuming too much (no un-explained acronyms), and keeps the book moving with human stories. It would be interesting to do a follow up in a few years to see how these many characters evolve...the technology version of Seven Up :) Congrats, Sarah.

I have to admit I had some bias against this book after the negative publicity she got from her interview with Mark Zuckerberg during SXSW. Sarah Lacy did an excellent job in capturing the essence of Web 2.0. I came off very inspired after reading the book. I like the flow of the story where she shifts back and forth from one Web 2.0 story to the next and finding the relationships between the people involved. I read a lot of technology blogs and I thought I knew a lot about Digg, Slide, etc. This book had a lot of things that were not covered by Techcrunch, Mashable, and even Valleywag! Part of me thinks this book was released a little early. I would have liked to read this book 2-3 years from now where it would probably chronicle a more definitive outcome for these Web 2.0 companies. Web 2.0 is not really over yet. Perhaps a sequel Sarah?

I could not put this book down! Huge insight into the trials, tribulations and absolute determination behind how tech start-ups (literally) climbed the ladder through barriers, sweat, blood and tears. With 'in the know' information, Sarah explains, in simplistic terms, how an overnight success is just not the case. Romance between founders & html coding, breakups with business partners and all the grit in between - this is a must for anyone who wants to understand the sheer grafting behind a business (regardless of industry) and the interaction between the players who's online inspirations we can't live without. Kudos to Sarah for not presuming everyone understands tech lingo & her own sheer perseverance in creating a must-reader. This book is a movie in the making!