A look back at some of 2004, and more…
2004--Search engines: This was certainly the year of the search engines, the big G and all the other little ones being funded and the old ones --Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL -- finding search again. It will be interesting how the older media companies do in search. Google has a very good trusted brand -- it doesn’t matter that other search engines are just as good, maybe sometimes better. It’s the brand that counts. But, if Yahoo, AOL, Amazon, and to a lesser extent Microsoft, can convince people to switch, they have a lot of their own content, services, and products they can wrap around the search results. I’d put my money on Yahoo being able to recapture some of its former search glory.
Yahoo Search: Interesting to watch how older media companies do in search
2004--Chip industry: Chip sales and chip equipment sales have had a shorter than normal upturn — especially the chip equipment industry. The chip equipment companies are likely suffering from greater capital efficiency thanks to the rise of the chip foundries. These third-party build-to-order chip makers can make sure that their production lines are running at almost full capacity, resulting in much more efficient use of capital investments. Very important when a fab is approaching $3bn apiece. Moore’s Law however, seems to be definitely slowing, despite Intel's protests to the contrary, as chip makers search for new types of materials that can stop electrons from “leaking” away and dealing with other tricky nano-scale effects.
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