Past, Present and Future of the Internet

The future of Internet Marketing include an understanding of the globalization of not only the economy but of communication. When most people think about the World Wide Web, they think in terms of the western community of online users who make up over the 180 million American surfers alone. The age of global communication is pushing the new global economy to a future level unseen in our lifetime. The effect on the future trends on marketing could be huge in the next few years.

The Internet is a child of the 1960s, with its roots dating back to 1969 when the first network of computers, ARPANET, communicated with one another. It took a full decade before the Internet Protocol was developed. In 1984, the domain name system was created, bringing with it the familiar suffixes of .com and .org. Still primarily academic, the Internet wasn’t widely used until the 1990s when two significant developments arrived. In 1991, the World Wide Web was ushered in. Hyperlinks made navigation much easier than in the past. And in 1993, the first Web browser, Mosaic, arrived, making for a graphical user experience. By the mid-1990s, an estimated 45 million users were using the Internet. By 2000, that number exploded to over 400 million. The Internet was officially here to stay. In its early incarnation, users connected to the Internet primarily through dial-up networking which consisted of a modem and a phone line. Users would connect, search for information, check email messages, and then disconnect once these tasks were complete thus freeing the phone line for traditional phone calls.

Today, the Internet isn’t a side activity; it’s a main attraction. High-speed, broadband connections have largely replaced dial-up networking. Now, many computer users are connected to the Internet around the clock. In addition, mobile phones and other devices such as PDAs and gaming consoles now connect to the Internet.
While yesterday’s websites were static, today’s sites are dynamic. It is a social medium where users are engaged. We shop online, we bank online, we play games online, we read the news online, we listen to music on line, we make phone calls online, we watch TV and movies online, we connect with other users online, we create our own media online, we do business online, and the list goes on. The Internet has affected nearly everything that we do. In the past, we purchased music and software on CDs. Today, many users buy music downloads while others subscribe to unlimited streaming music subscriptions. Software is now available as a service “in the cloud.” Rather than buying a disc, installing the software, and owning it outright, software can be accessed online via a monthly subscription. Along with the advances made comes a darker side: computer viruses, spyware, and privacy concerns. Hackers and malware developers are running rampant, fueling a cat-and-mouse game between the black hatters and computer security experts. In addition privacy concerns have been raised. Not only does malware threaten privacy, some users willingly and unwittingly give up personal information online over social networks and some people are concerned about the potential for government monitoring. 

If you could gaze into a crystal ball and see the Internet in the future, what would it look like? No one knows for sure, but we can speculate. With the popularity of mobile devices such as the iPad, cell phones, and eBook readers, it’s likely that the Internet will continue to spread into other areas of our lives. Touch screens and voice recognition technologies may render the keyboard and mouse obsolete. It’s also likely that more content will be delivered via the Internet than over traditional media such as radio, television, print, and CDs. Cloud computing may also become more prevalent. The Internet has been fascinating the world on a grand scale for nearly two decades. It is sure to continue its evolution, surprising us with its wonders for decades to come.