Web 2.0 technologies have changed the way companies and their customers interact, writes columnist Louis Columbus. So, he advises, companies should update the message they deliver to their customers to take better advantage of this new conversation.

Marketing is going through a revolution online, thanks to the continual adoption of the Web 2.0 concepts originally defined by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty.

If you want to see some excellent graphics and analysis explaining Web 2.0, subscribe to Ross Dawson’s blog, Trends in the Living Networks.

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NEW YORK–When News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch plunked down $580 million to buy the social networking site MySpace in 2005, C.H. Low had a reaction not that uncommon among tech industry veterans.

“I said, ‘This is ridiculous! Are we in another bubble?’ ” said Low. “But I thought, ‘Murdoch is a smart man. Something else must be going on here.’ ”

Three years later, Low is the CEO of the software startup Orbius, one of an estimated 50 to 100 companies selling software and on-demand tools to help everyone from automakers to traditional publishing companies add social networking and improved community functions on their Web sites.

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I know there are those among us who lack my love for all things Google. Sure, it shows our kids ads, keeps track of the searches coming out of our buildings, displays naughty thumbnails that only the best of content filters can block, most kids don’t look beyond the first three hits (two of which are usually sponsored), etc., etc.

Sure, that’s all true, but Google is a lot more than search. I don’t think I’m off base in saying that Google provides the largest, free set of Web 2.0 tools available to the general public, meaning that our users can access them at home or school and generally across platforms (including Linux in most cases). One of our after-school programs is taking digital pictures of various flora and fauna out in the woods, uploading the pictures into Picasa, capturing the location at which the pictures were taken using a GPS, and then “geotagging” that location in Google Earth.

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There are plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs in the wild world of Web 2.0, and ASOTV.Info is one example, writes columnist Theodore F. di Stefano. On setting out, however, it’s vital not to lose sight of one’s revenue stream.

Competition for building a profitable Web site is quite fierce. Yet many of us have dreams of a unique concept that will attract viewers, followed soon thereafter by advertisers. I’m not sure what percentage of aspirants succeed in this quest, but I would venture to guess that it’s a very low percentage.

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As much as economic bubbles keep bursting all about us these days, it seems only a matter of time before the same happens to the ultrahip Web 2.0 phenomenon.

In fact, as our Brier Dudley noted in his blog last week, it may already be happening, given that even the tech magazines are making fun of the “cool kids” of Web. 2.0.

His case in point: PCMag’s feature listing the 10 “most absurd” social networks — you know, sites such as Dogster, a network for dog lovers that claims to have three-quarters-of-a-million members and monthly visitors.

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