Last night I attended the Blogger relaunch party at SF’ 26Mix. It was a pretty cool bash – and I mean the food, the music and the locale were pretty trendy. What struck me was the names and faces from the past, those who had become party regulars were all in full force. Jay Shellen, Evan Williams and a whole bunch of Blogger gang were in attendance, and so were the folks behind Craigslist, Newsmonster, Feedster and of course the queen of valley gossip, Chris Nolan. James and James of AmIhotornot were in attendance as well.

It reminded me of the parties in 1999 when the dotcom madness was in full swing. Lately I have been getting more of these party invites and there seems to be a certain buzz, back in the air. The rentals in San Francisco are inching up slowly, the traffic on Highway 101 is turning into a weebit of a nightmare, and even magazines are trotting out some familiar names. My magazine for instance has a story on Mary “Queen of the Net” Meeker, Nick Denton of Gawker Media. and a couple of others. Wired is having a NextFest. What makes it more like 1999, is the fact that a whole lot of journalists are talking about “blogging” as their salvation (which may or may not be true!) and quitting their jobs to do something with “blogs.” Back in the day, they were talking about web as their escape key. I think the hype machine around blogs is in high gear, and while it might make some like Rafat Ali or Nick Denton very rich, there is little or no hope for many of us.

In short, it smells and feels like 1999. Let the party begin – free vodka and canapes, hell I am not complaining.