Other consumer-oriented startups include Yipit, which consolidates online bargains and makes them available in one searchable database, and I-Ella, an invite-only website that allows fashion lovers to put their wardrobes online and to buy, swap, sell or lend their clothes to other fashionistas. Buyers pay a 10 percent transaction fee which benefits their favorite charities.

What about a quick and easy way to pay the bills? Enter Manilla, a secure, free online service that consolidates all household accounts onto one page accessible through a single password. It also offers payment reminders. The arrangement appeals to businesses as well.

“Businesses today spend tons of money and tons of waste in paper and postage. The Internet has been around for 15 years, and on average only 15 percent of bills are actually paperless. And it’s causing businesses a fortune," says Jim Schinella, a Manilla co-founder. "So for a business we create this wonderful relationship.”

Just which dot-com ideas will produce the next Google, Facebook, eBay or Netflix is anyone’s guess. But it was clear from the excitement at Internet Week New York that the desire to digitally connect with others for fun or profit or both is as boundless as the Internet itself.