This billboard advertising space at the corner of 9th and Folsom has, it seems, been a kind of harbinger of a bubble ready to burst in the past — or, at the very least, coincidentally an affordable ad space for the kind of startup that you know never will never make it when the VC spending spree stops. Call our current, impending transition what you will — "market correction," "bubble pop," "cause for sleepless nights for high-end SoMa leasing agents" — these two photos, one from 2000 and one from 2016, sum up the situation nicely.

Current New Yorker Sam Green posted the above side-by-side to Facebook (which I saw via local scribe Marke B.), saying,

San Franciscans: 16 years ago I was stopped at a light at the corner of 9th and Folsom and looked over and saw a billboard for Gazoontite.com (it was supposed to be the go-to place for all your cold medicine needs). I thought to myself "that's the dumbest idea for a company I've ever heard of, because nobody — including myself — knows how to spell that word! Maybe this dotcom stuff has gone off the deep end??" Sure enough, the first tech bubble burst a few weeks later. I was in SF recently and found myself stopped at that very same light. Looked over and on the very same billboard: "Wag! Finally an app for me to pee!" I thought it might be a joke but looked it up later and read that this is "the Uber for dogwalkers" (seriously?????) Now I'm not drawing any dire conclusions here — just wanted to put it out there . . . .

Do I need to say it?

Previously: Is Silicon Valley Simply Too Young To Remember The Last Bubble Bursting?
Life After The Boom: What Will Happen When This Bubble Bursts