Our Internet coverage focuses on companies that are well-positioned to exploit the shift from traditional print media and business and consumer services to the World Wide Web. Internet-based advertising in the United States surged from $4.6 billion in annual spending in 1999 to more than $9.6 billion in 2004, according to a 2005 study conducted by DoubleClick (now a division of Google). Over the same period, the number of Internet users in the U.S., age 18 and over, climbed from 60 million to more than 160 million. Internet advertising is currently about 80 percent as large as the magazine industry, and about 50 percent of the size of the radio industry, according to the same study. Internet advertising is on track to grow from $21.1 billion in 2007 to $26 billion in 2008.

Keeping the world’s internet infrastructure remains a constant challenge. Netcraft estimates that there were 166 million internet sites as of April 2008, with the number of total web pages estimated in excess of 45 billion. Companies like VeriSign help to manage the licensing and cataloging of the world’s websites, while Akamai, for example, plays a role in delivering more than 20 percent of the world’s web traffic. Through its investment in a proprietary network of more than one million computers, Google has transformed the world of internet search with a highly responsive and precise engine that has captured close to two thirds of the world’s search traffic.

Old-line media and telecommunications companies have seized the opportunity to increase business by exploiting the Web as a communications medium. Television networks have created web sites in an attempt to expand their market presence through 24/7 news coverage, and capitalize on the trend toward internet news, pioneered by Yahoo!

The emergence of online travel services, electronic storefronts and marketplaces speak to the profound ways in which the Internet has transformed commerce and customer service. Accordingly, our coverage includes Priceline.com, Expedia.com, eBay, Amazon.com, and others who provide a blend of content, community and service—at an affordable price. Collectively, these companies present threats to longstanding, brick and mortar companies too closely tied to archaic methods of conducting commerce.