I'm not sure if it's the last day of winter or something else, but a couple venture capitalists have decided today to philosophize on the state of Web 2.0 investment.

Crosslink Capital's Peter Rip writes that after overhearing an entrepreneur pitch an investor with a Web 2.0 idea at a table next to his at a restaurant, he realized that the Web 2.0 phenomenon has gone mainstream. It led him to claim the the easy work of enabling self expression via blogs and wikis is over and that the remaining Web 2.0 opportunity is the tough job of creating the web as a platform.

Jeff Clavier posted for the first time in three months to take stock of his three years investing in Internet startups. He breaks down his early-stage portfolio into three sections and the hits so far include UserPlane, Truveo and MyBlogLog. His most promising still private startup is NetVibes.

There remains plenty of opportunity in consumer Internet investing. Just like the first wave of e-commerce startups, the chance of building successful companies was available long after the majority thought the time had passed. And, Rip's main point that Web 2.0 has gone mainstream only reinforces the idea that successful companies can still be built in this segment by pursuing a vision of a company for many, rather than just a feature for a few.

Tags: web2, web+2.0, vc, venture+capital