I remember how many people at that time said it would never happen, this internet fad. It will never take off. Who wants to go on the internet to shop? Who would ever give their credit card across the world wide web, into the ether? Why would people rather talk online than on the telephone? Well, friends, if you are living in the year 2010, you are living the internet dream. We are connected 24×7 and it’s getting easier and easier to shop, communicate, browse and work.

But there always has to be someone who doesn’t believe it. Along comes Prince, who I love dearly. My first album that was banned from my record player by my parents was Purple Rain. I think I know every word to every song on that album. The man is a musical genius and has millions of fans around the world but refuses to embrace technology and went so far as saying the internet is over in a recent interview picked up by Mashable. And, he went on to say

All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.

It is hard to believe that there are smart, influential, talented people out there who believe that the internet is the root of all evil. What about all of the great things the internet has does to open business and commerce? To connect people around the world? To create access to information? To make music available to fans everywhere?

Maybe we’ve all fallen prey to the cult of Steve Jobs, and Facebook, and iTunes and Twitter and the many gadgets and websites we use every day to help us do our jobs better, live better, learn more and be more productive members of society. Maybe we should go back to our pre-internet days and forget all the gizmos, gadgetry and websites.

…on second thought, I’ll stick with the cult. Sorry Prince, I ain’t buyin’ it.

Last week, TechCrunch reported that Intuit will acquire the free online personal finance service, Mint, for around $170 million. The deal, which should be announced in the next few days, puts Mint in a new league. As TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington described it, “This is a terrific exit for Mint, which first launched two years ago at TechCrunch50. Mint took the top prize at that event and has been growing fast ever since.” Growing fast, eh? Let’s talk about explosive growth. I’m talking gaining 3,000 new users a day and jumping from 600,000 to 850,000 users in a matter of months. The best part is that Intuit didn’t believe the numbers and sent Mint a threatening letter demanding an explanation for the user sign-up success.

I guess Intuit got the answers they wanted given today’s news. I can see exactly what they see in Mint. As Rob at Regular Geek points out, it was born in the glory days of Web 2.0 and comes without all the baggage of Web 1.0 software products. Where Quicken is desktop-like, heavy and complex to use, Mint uses light graphics and is focused on spending against a budget versus the dull and overwhelming focus on bill payment and tracking. They’ve done a lot of things right with the Mint product and have made personal finance accessible and and even fun for the average Joe.

This acquisition bodes well for those of us in the social trading and investing space. It shows that a serious player like Intuit finds tremendous value in the product and the users of an innovative Web 2.0 company. It proves that breaking the model of the way trading, investing and saving have always been done creates market opportunity, revenue opportunity and innovation opportunity. What a great way to start a Monday. Congrats to the Mint team on this exciting accomplishment.