e-consultancy.com :: Nielsen-NetRatings - How The Internet Has Changed Our Life
...Amazon
Despite some wild predictions, books themselves are much the same now as they were five years ago. But Amazon earns a place on this list for the way it sells them - Amazon, and other successful e-commerce ventures like lastminute.com, have pioneered personalised selling, and sell hundreds of thousands of items through customised newsletters and recommendations schemes.
What's next? This kind of "Social Software" is likely to become more sophisticated, so interactivity will be an even bigger selling point and sales driver than it is now.
Friends Reunited
If there's one site that changed the perception of the Internet in the UK, it's Friends Reunited. The Internet was suddenly no longer a geek's playground - normal people used it too, and not just any normal people: the people who you went to school with. The hugely successful formula has been used in most other countries too, and may be said to have paved the way for the wider acceptance of online dating and matchmaking services.
What's next? The idea of meeting people through the Internet is mainstream now and likely to stay that way...