Yesterday saw the 10th anniversary of Nasdaq’s exuberant peak. Press abounded.

Today, a decade ago, saw the start of it’s demise. Nasdaq is still less than half of its value at the peak.

Yet its irrational exuberance created todays Web and tech titans. Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo, AOL, Salesforce.com, PayPal, Google and on. It triggered the broadband revolution which in turn spawned Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, Skype, iTunes and hundreds of thousands of Web (2.0), mobile, social and gaming apps. Each fired up on broadband laptops and 3G handsets.

It forced corporations across the board to accept the Web and its open-ness. Charles Schwab took stockbroking online. Geiko did the same for insurance. Morgan Stanley led Wall Streets tech revolution. Warner led the music labels move to digital – sparked by Apple and the iPod/iTunes one – two punch. Obama took politics online. Blogs and social networks led the masses onto the virtual streets and gave them a billion audible soap boxes.

But where are the unsung heroes of Nasdaq’s collapse? The ones that ten years ago were developing and leading businesses that drove the revolution we enjoy today as much as any other, but fell under the financial tsunami that Nasdaq’s collapse beset them with. Where is Excite, Lycos, AltaVista, AOL, Softbank, MP3.com, MyPoints, Netcentives, Beenz, About, @home, Looksmart, Napster and others.

They live on, sold to other businesses, driving change from within. Their people and technologies now as wolves in sheeps clothing – leading new generation Web and tech pioneers or advising and investing in the latest innovation. Some even driving corporate change. Let’s make sure we do not forget them while we celebrate the obvious success stories. They each made this Web revolution what it is.

The Internet is our very future. Quite a Pheonix to have risen from the ashes of the .com collapse.