The World Wide Web and Electronic mail are by far the most commonly used services provided by the Internet. The use of the Internet for entertainment purposes is also responsible for a very large share of the data traffic within the network. The Internet is also used at work - mainly for research and information gathering purposes. B ecause the American government has withdrawn from many areas of the Internet, and thus no longer provides financial backing, important online services, including search engines , such as Yahoo, Lycos or WebCrawler, and electronic magazines, such as Hotwired, can only be financed through advertising by sponsors. Four categories of commercial use are discernible at the present time.
Online advertising is the fastest growing commercial sector of the Internet.
Initial experiences show that new marketing techniques will have to found due to the interactive nature of the medium. Aggressive, pushy advertising is rejected by Internet users. Online shopping currently only plays a subordinate role within the Internet. The total annual turnover of the online shopping business carried out through the Internet is currently estimates at under 100 million dollars. According to one Internet survey, the majority of users plan to do more of their shopping via the network in future.