Who owns your surfing time?

The Web is an almost infinite, and ever-changing, environment. I don’t think there is any one person who can claim to have surveyed all of this vast domain (except for some very scary people with no lives whatsoever) - however, the vast spaces of

The Web is an almost infinite, and ever-changing, environment. I don't think there is any one person who can claim to have surveyed all of this vast domain (except for some very scary people with no lives whatsoever) - however, the vast spaces of the Web seem to be compressing at an alarming rate. Not in a spatial sense; instead, it seems that less companies are beginning to own more of the Web than ever before. A new report by American firm Jupiter Media Metrix has shown that a mere four sites control 50 per cent surfers' time online.

The four companies are AOL, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Napster. A year ago there were 11 companies with a similar slice of the surfing pie, and the decrease shows a sharp increase in mergers and Internet real estate consolidation. The AOL Time Warner merger alone helped smoosh a lot of Web property under the one banner.

The trend is even more alarming when you expand the data just a little. A year ago 110 companies held 60 per cent of users' attention; now that demographic has dropped to just 14. If a similar thing were to happen in print or broadcast media, it would be a clear violation ownership laws. Online, it seems be far easier to get away with domination of the information flow.