Making money from the web

After listening to the lecture for this week, I began to question how big internet websites are sold for so much money given their business models which do not have any income. I think the fate of MySpace is going to a be a major player in the future sales of internet websites. I remember back to the Twitter interview we watched a few weeks ago and how the question of profitability was so prominent during the discussion. Is there a possibility that websites such as Twitter and MySpace were so popular because they don't have advertisements? For the amount of money being exchanged for the websites, is there any viable business model that can make it a good investment? I can not help but think it would take a lot of popup ads to cover the amount of money negotiated in these contracts. Furthermore, I do not think the types of passive advertisements that could be used in these sites are going to be effective compared to the rack and stack operations of search engines. Users have a way of clicking through content to get to what they want to see whereas search engines give people exactly what they are looking for in the first place. As a business looking to advertise, I would much rather have my product come up first among people looking for products like mine than have my advertisements pop up like weeds and annoy potential customers. Just as consumers are taking an active role in interacting with companies to get more personalized products and services, they are also taking an active role in marketing by seeking out the advertisements they want to see.