I was speaking with one of my longtime colleagues recently about the heady days of the late '90s, when we were "changing the world" with that new-fangled thing we called the Internet. Much has happened since then, including the dot-com implosion, and now, the long-expected resurgence of web activity, especially in b-to-b.

But, we were remarking, it's different now.  The revolutionary fervor is gone, replaced, perhaps appropriately, with a more businesslike approach. There's no longer the veiled threat of  "companies that don't do e-commerce will be out of business in five years."

It's been replaced, however, by an almost dizzying array of options. Where there once was the Internet, or maybe, broadly, the new media, now there is a crazy-quilt landscape of options, all growing out of our ability to connect and communicate electronically.

And not just the obvious ones like e-mail, online advertising, and search engine optimization, which are growing into established sub-segments of the Internet industry, in their own right.

But even further distinctions are emerging, like user-generated content (blogging), search-engine marketing, web analytics, podcasting, one-to-one marketing, rich media, content syndication, and mobile content, to name just a few. Which of these new approaches will be the 21st century version of the World Wide Web? That remains to be seen.

For the b-to-b marketer, these new marketing alternatives hold a combination of both promise and caution. There's the opportunity to vault over several of your competitors by backing the right horse in this crowded field. And there's the concern that a competitor might do so, as well.

We've had the experience, for instance, of telling at least one of our clients the good news that none of their major competitors were competing effectively for high ranking on key search terms. But, conversely, that a marginal player was doing well, ranking, in effect, well beyond their true stature in the industry.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that's the kind of situation we'll face over the next few years: rather than seeking the proverbial silver bullet (I think the heady phrase of the dot-com eras was "first-mover advantage"), we should be looking at these new media options and asking a simple question of each. Which one (or ones) provide the best opportunity to tell our unique story or reach our customers and audiences in new, different, and compelling ways? I suspect we'll be asking that question a great deal in the future.