In my article titled "Strategies for Surviving the Internet meltdown: The Case of Two Internet Incumbents" published in 2004 in the Management Decision * I studied the secret of survival and success of two top online firms of the first web generation: Amazon and ETrade. These firms not only outlived the 2000 Internet meltdown but are still thriving online. My conclusion was that the strategy of these firms was quite similar and inspired by the Red Queen Principle: continuous transformation and expansion in new markets, new products or both.
It seems that the same principle is still the basis of the strategy of many successful new web firms and firms of the Web 2.0 era. A good example is Google: a recent development of Google (in beta) called Insights helps tracing the number of searches performed for any term, phrase or name worldwide or in any countries and in different time periods (up to 4 years). Very useful for those who want to optimize the findability of their site or simply want to know whether more or less users are searching for their brand or product than last year or if their brand / product is more popular search term than the brand / product of their competitors.
* Constantinides E., 2004, Strategies for Surviving the Internet meltdown: The Case of Two Internet Incumbents, Management Decision Journal, vol 42, nr 1, pp 89-107
