I love it when things just happen, especially when they fly in the face of the predictions of pundits and experts. The real power of network computing, we were told, was going to be the ability to harness multiple computers and processors and create vast computing grids that would have more muscle than the biggest Cray money could buy.

So, what have we gotten from distributed grid computing? We still haven't found ET, and the last time I looked, SETI@home still was looking for him or her or it. We have managed to crack some serious encryptions utilizing a networked grid, and that is fun, but they all have been one-offs and take way too much time to be of any practical use.

Grids have been used in software shops to distribute the load of creating the latest build. Distributed computing works, exists, and may come into its own, but I have yet to see the really killer business application that is built on a grid. What I have seen, though, is the incredible growth of online social networking as seen in the success of services such as MySpace and Facebook. For the moment, the apparent power of networked computers is the ability for users to interact with one another. Yet I wouldn't write social networking off as the faddish toys of the teen and twenty-something crowd. A specific social network service may be riding a short-lived wave of popularity, but the concept is solid and here to stay.