WTF is Web 3.0? And does the internet really come in versions or is it constantly evolving? Also, has there ever been a successful company that built a product based on trends or are trends created by people copying successful companies?

My own opinion is heavily influenced by what @fredwilson said the other day: "It's not the jockey or the horse that wins the race, its the combination".

My guess is that every once in a while the stars align and a talented group of individuals come up with an idea with requirements that matche their skill set/experience, all of the macro variables align to make that idea super profitable and once it is a bunch of people look at it in hindsight and think that b/c their idea is similar that they should start a company.

I've never started a successful company so I have no basis to think this is valid. What do you think?

I do not think there is a major transition point between "versions" of the internet, but there certainly are inflection points. Each shift in "version" is a combination of growth in the technological capacity of the internet (and browser) as well as shifts in our use of it.

Web 3.0 is 3 things in my opinion:
1. A major growth of web application development that will have a size-able impact in native iOS/Android development.
2. An increase in internet applications that are siteless and instead exist throughout the web (IFTTT is a good preliminary example of this, although it does require a site).
3. Connecting devices besides computers, phones, tablets, tv's to the internet, and providing powerful and easy to use API's to connect to them.

It's always 1.0, 2.0, etc. in retrospect. Like Steve mentioned, these eras seem to be defined by the major human problem existing technology is poised to address. 1.0 was defined by the portal (AOL, Yahoo directories, academic research). 2.0 was defined by search (SEO, advertising), and now we're seeing the emergence of context with the network graph, location, and relevance being tackled (I'd say 3.0 is in full swing). I think technology relentlessly moves towards an integration of mankind, but what that means exactly for the near future remains to be seen. What are the major obstacles to further integration?

'I think technology relentlessly moves towards an integration of mankind'. Do you mean cyborgs or just really awesome cell phones?

He's talking about the iPhone 6.

New question: will the internet ever be replaced, or just built upon?

like HTTP replaced with SDPY? I think this becomes a Ship of Theseus problem.

@David ha, I don't specifically mean human integration with technology, I mean humans growing closer to each other. Telephones let us contact family across the globe. Facebook lets us stay in touch with old friends. Books and hard drives draw us closer with our histories. Stuff like that.

@Steve, the Internet seems to me like carbon, tested over years of use, pressure and stress, into a diamond. Doesn't seem like it's going anywhere soon. I'd vote for many, many more peripheral technologies building on what's here.