But for a while a determined freeloader could find a Web site that would pick up the tab for all sorts of other goods and services, from computer keyboards to photo developing, in return for little more than looking at a few ads. Some services are still free, but with limits. At other sites, the watchword has changed from free to fee. It is also becoming harder to get free shipping when buying from an online store. Even Yahoo, the big, previously free Web portal, has started imposing fees for many aspects of its service and promises many more.
Most sites offering news and information are still free, but a few have started to impose fees.
More are considering doing so. Besides, advertising is down, not dead. Of course, perhaps the bigg-est giveaway on the Net, the music on Napster, is also slowly coming to an end but for legal reasons. And if the record companies do not kill it entirely, as most seem to want to, Napster hopes to be reincarnated with a monthly subscription fee. World net access higher AFP reports that some 379 million people are estimate to have access to the internet, and two thirds of that figure now make regular use of the facility, according to a report.