“It is hard to imagine that only 15 years ago we witnessed the birth of such a mysterious phenomenon as the Internet. Today it not only has become a part of everybody’s life, but also has started to change the world before our eyes.
The Internet finally erases the boundaries between countries and continents. Today with the help of ICQ or video conferences you can communicate in real time with your friends, colleagues, partners, who are in different corners of our planet.
Wow!
The Internet has turned into the biggest information resource, the largest “library” of knowledge, as well as the broadest communication environment. It allows millions of people with the help of blogs, podcasts or web-sites to express themselves, to broaden their outlook, to find confederates, new friends and, which is most important, make their life more interesting and diverse. It is no coincidence that today you can find sites or blogs of show business celebrities, actors and directors, famous singers and scientists, journalists and writers and even the ex-president of the USA on the Internet.
Such resources as MySpace, YouTube, Friendster, Livejornal, Linkedin, Hi5, Xanga, Classmates, Last.fm, etc. are examples of the first portals created taking into account the new needs, technical capabilities, interests of the planet’s population. It is conformity to those criteria that made them the most popular sites visited by dozens and sometimes hundreds of millions of people. And every one of us understands that it is the beginning of not only a technical, but also a real communication revolution.
The Internet also leaves its lasting impact on almost all mass media. Unlike a printed version of a publication, its own site enables publishers not to be limited by the number of pages of a magazine or newspaper, but to give information of a completely different volume and quality, not only to put up articles, but also to supplement them with live interviews, video reports and music.
It seems that in the near future materials will be announced in the printed version to be placed on a site instead of being announced on the site to be published in the printed version. And now there remains one thing – to watch the magazines with a history of more than half a century slowly, but steadily turn into printed appendices to websites.
We see how television tries to change. In recent years, the dream of full-fledged interactivity reigns over the minds of many TV-channel owners around the world. And everybody understands perfectly well that broadcasting capabilities of every TV-channel can in no way compare to the freedom of choice, convenience and quality of providing information, which broadband Internet and such platforms as WEB 2.0 give.
Perhaps, that is the reason why the Internet has gradually turned into a “channel” with the largest viewing audience in the world. No wonder that today advertisements on the most famous sites and search engines cost practically the same as advertisements on the most popular TV-channel in prime time. And this is only the beginning!
We witnessed radical changes in the mindset of most companies in only the last 5-7 years. They changed their attitude towards the Internet and the vision of expediency and form of their presence on it.
Many companies initially considered their site an opportunity to inform the clients in a timely manner and demonstrate their products. Now the single thought of independence from retail distributors and resellers, cost reduction and opportunities to control the final price make them think of creating their own e-shops, and single out E-commerce as one of the priority lines of their development. Their own website turns into a powerful and most promising marketing tool to introduce and promote their brand in the market. Thanks to the Internet every company now gets more than 1 billion potential buyers, which theoretically turns Internet users into the largest existing and possible product market of all. And more importantly – a most rapidly growing one.
And that is just a small list of facts and trends, which show the place the Internet will assume in the life of people and companies in the near future. And extensive development of Wi-Fi wireless technology will only increase not only the total number of Internet users, but also the access rate by the existing ones.
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