We all need to open ourselves to the wondrousness of the unexpected, the untried and the unknown, such that the future becomes a gift and not something to be feared. The most disappointing aspect of the Web right now is that it is becoming a vast billboard wasteland, carrying an enormous amount of soulless information. The Internet and Web in particular is a pull model and not a push one, therefore people have to choose to see your material. As such it makes a lot of sense for businesses to sponsor the most popular sites in order to gain vicarious visibility, thus developing product recognition and goodwill amongst customers for supporting something they enjoy. This is what happens when companies like Coca Cola become the advertising sponsors for shows such as The Simpsons, The Footy Show or Star Trek.
Television advertising is expensive, though.
Companies have discovered that putting up alot of information about themselves on the Internet is cheap by comparison with a larger potential audience. What has completely by-passed many business's considerations is how to make use of the Internet such that it generates more business, not just massages their corporate egos. I remember speaking with Lisa Mitchell, a reporter for the Age, about the sort of access rates different businesses were receiving for their sites. She had gone out to report on an online business and they had proudly stated that they received one to two people a day looking at their site. She politely upped the number to two to three accesses a day in her article.