Most colleges and universities were on the Net, and most defense contractors also had a connection. These connections provided an easy way to collect, disseminate, and compare information. The Internet was made up of predominately academic users, governmental employees and agencies, and their vendors. That began to change a few years ago when the present administration in Washington began touting the information superhighway, and the Internet received constant attention from the media. Users want easier navigation, consistency, and reliability of information.
Users are concerned about security and privacy.
The most popular Internet applications are email, the World Wide Web, newsgroups, and chat. For the prospective Internet marketer, the scramble to get users connected and the resulting fight for standards among providers, web browsers, and connections represents both good news and bad news. The bad news is the confusion, splintering, and lack of standards that will plague Internet users for the next year or so. The good news is the rapid growth in subscribership and broader demographics that will result from the push to get consumers connected to the Net. As the media hype continues, as the speculators and big money players flock to the Internet service providers and software makers, we believe that the Internet's explosive growth will continue for the next few years.