In the future people will probably look back and put the Internet Age up there with the agricultural and industrial revolutions - a moment when the world made a giant leap forward. It is part of the way in which people can connect together and share information instantly. Together with texts, tweets, voice contact over cellphone networks and so on, the way that most people live has changed dramatically.

The growth of this industry has produced huge opportunities for some companies and caused many others to change. For example, in the 1990s you would have been reading this entry in a book, because most people did not have a good Internet connection. You would certainly not have watched a video because the available bandwidth was too small.

People also expect information free and to be available at a click, so that is why search engines have made so much money. They make money because, along with the information you want, they serve up adverts tailored to your Internet habits.

Huge numbers of people also put up information for free, making free encyclopedias, for example, although there is little control of the quality and level of the information.

So in many ways the Internet has been a great advantage.