4000 Days

The web shifted to commercial when AT&T purchased the first banner ad. It was on the HotWired Web site. "That was just 4,000 days ago, and in that short time the effects of dirt-cheap communications have bloomed all around us--Google... Wikipedia. Meanwhile, the once mighty titans of telecom--the AT&Ts, Worldcoms, Lucents and Nortels--have withered. Owning a network is no longer a path to riches, but to penury." "The Internet is in fact a historical anomaly--a better communications network that actually managed to see the light of day."