THE QUEST FOR THE NEXT BIG THING

摘要

Every day on my commute, I pass within yards of a monument to technology's failed dreams. It's a sprawling office complex along Silicon Valley's main highway that once housed Internet portal Excite@Home. Drawn to it one day last year, as if to a haunted house, I parked and tiptoed up to peer inside. Utterly empty. Spooky. I remembered catching glimpses, as I whizzed by at 65 mph, of people bustling inside the green tinted windows, and I wondered where they all went. The collapse in 2001 of Excite@Home ended the bid of what was once a strong contender for tech's Next Big Thing.