I feel like I’m back in the ’90s again. Slap bracelets are cool, roller blading is the ultimate recreational sport and every kid dreams of cloning his own pet dinosaur after seeing it done in ‘Jurassic Park.’

Not to mention that two 20-somethings just cashed in big time after selling their dot-com company, YouTube, to Google for $1.65 billion.

The Internet is back, and in a big way. Sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube dominate Web traffic. Google’s stock is approaching $500 per share. Tech experts and bloggers call it ‘Web 2.0.’

The YouTube story is one that was all too familiar 10 years ago. Two guys come up with a crazy idea for a Web site. Within a few short months their dream is a reality. A few months later the site’s popularity explodes and its creators are billionaires essentially overnight. The only thing missing so far from this tale is it all blowing up in their face.

But it’s a different era now. Dot-com companies have learned from their mistakes. Instead of going at it alone, they’re being bought by even bigger media companies who have fat enough wallets to allow time for their Web investments to grow.

When News Corporation, the same company that owns 20th Century Fox, Fox News Channel and TV Guide, bought MySpace last year, it brought with it the power, business knowledge and money to keep the immensely popular site afloat.

Some experts are already writing the Google/YouTube (GooTube) obituary, noting that Google, a multi-billion dollar company, will face several lawsuits because YouTube users are essentially free to post copyrighted material on the site.

On his blog called Searchblog, technology and media writer John Battelle said that because of its mass audience and user base, Google and YouTube are essentially invincible to lawsuits. A suit against GooTube is like a suit against the millions of users who use the site each day.

‘And the gorgeous fact of it is this: The other side isn’t Google. It’s everyone who uses Google (and now, YouTube.),’ Battelle wrote in his blog about a lawsuit threat from Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons. Parsons threatened to sue because a lot of Time Warner’s copyrighted material can be found on YouTube.

It is true that Google will probably be sued, but the great thing about big corporations is they have tons of money and extremely skilled lawyers, so settling a few cases won’t hurt much, especially if YouTube starts to bring in cash for the company.

One thing Google should be wary of though: YouTube is obviously direct competition for Google’s own Google Video service, and eventually the two will have to merge together. Google will not be successful in the long run by keeping the two sites separate. On the flip side, too many changes too quickly will turn users off from both services, making the billion-dollar buyout a total waste.

For better or for worse, for copyright infringement or for lonely teenagers posting video blogs about their day, YouTube isn’t going anywhere.

Steve Kovach is a featured columnist whose columns appear Fridays in The Daily Orange. Email him at sjkovach@gmail.com.

Published on October 25, 2006 at 12:00 pm