The top 5 sites on the internet (Google, facebook, YouTube, Yahoo & Windows Live)1 offer their functionality without direct monetary compensation by their users. The coin of the realm is information on online behavior, and we trade without a thought. Indeed, these five websites are such a large part of our average internet experience that the adsense way of thinking has become pervasive throughout the web. The has-beens of the internet snuggle up to these giants offering their supply of user data in exchange for a lease on life2. Sites plug into Google analytics and facebook connect en masse. The information these sites gather on our surfing is primarily used to display targeted ads, and the economics of operating a major website are such that a single ad-click pays for hordes of freeloading visitors.
Taleb's Black Swan emerges again: No-one could have predicted to Tim Berners-Lee that the web anno 2010 would comprise of five gargantuan content providers (really four since Google owns YouTube) and 'the rest', nor that 'free' would be the norm and the subscription model obsolete
Of course there are exceptions: Apple's controlled internet experience is everything but free, and Rupert Murdoch is still a firm believer in making visitors pay for their time on his websites. Also, the impending demise of net neutrality can reverse this trend dramatically. For the time being, we'd rather be mined than milked. I wonder what the next wave will be.
UPDATE: Rupert Murdoch & Steve Jobs are reportedly teaming up to deliver News Corp. content trough an app.3
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