Have things peaked out?

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At least a couple of times a year studies of internet use get published. Some receive lots of publicity, especially if they bear tantalizing hints about the loneliness of the long distance surfer (and quite a bit less when they don't, while others report the bear facts and let us wallow in a sort of inconclusiveness. The latest of these headlines that Net access passes 100 million in the U.S., but later reports "growth in home Web use in the United States dropped in the last year compared with the prior 12-month period". So internet use continues to grow, but it's not growing as quickly as it once was. Does this have any bearing on the growth or decline of homepages? Most certainly. The report notes that "the Net is starting to win over people who are wary of adopting to new technologies". These are, on the whole, people who will check out CNN (or feel quite at home with the Micrsoft Network as their opening page), will check out the pornography sites once or twice and will probably surf over to the site of their favorite television programs. These are not the people who feel a need for a personal web page, let alone a web site.

As the web becomes ubiquitous it also becomes less adventurous: of those new users who are getting online, fewer and fewer will feel the need for a personal site, and probably even fewer will be interested in viewing others' personal sites.

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Go to: The Return of the Home Page.