Question of the Week: Are We in Another Internet Bubble?

It’s been more than 10 years since a slew of Internet companies went public at ridiculous valuations.

Many companies — most without any profit — doubled or tripled their value on their first day of trading (remember Webvan? Or Pets.com? And what ever happened to the Pets.com sock puppet?).

Of course, the boom led to the dot-com bust, which devastated the tech industry from March 2000 to fall 2002.

Some are arguing that we are in another Internet bubble. Yesterday, Pandora Music went public, delivering a solid IPO. While still unprofitable, the online music service was able to price its IPO above its expected price range and then surge more than 60% before ending the day up 9 percent.

Pandora’s IPO followed rousing a rousing debut from LinkedIn, which rocketed 109% in its first day. Fusion-io and Yandex (the Russian Facebook) also did well in their market debuts. Groupon is expected to go public (despite its losses) and could have a $25 billion valuation. Facebook is also reportedly planning an IPO in Q1 2012 with a $100 billion valuation.

So, we ask, are we in another Internet bubble?