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Hi Brian,
This is an interesting subject for a forum.
With sales tax, wouldn't it apply the same as offline sales tax? I guess there are special considerations with regard to levying it.. ie, if a sale is made by a company in a particular state or country to a person in the same state or country then the transaction would be liable for the sales tax if one applies. As business people, we would need to be aware of our obligations with regard to collecting and paying taxes, just as any business owner would be. Maybe there will be an opportunity in the market for people to provide IT solutions to make it easier.
It is a very complex issue, and depending on where you are based and where your customer lives, there could be none, local, state or national taxes to consider.
The social networking sites like MySpace and others would seem to be on the upswing. YouTube and the other video sites are huge and came from nowhere fast. What's next? Who knows. I think the future of online opportunity lies in providing value for people - as it always has in business. I doubt that there will ever be any one thing that can claim to be "the future of the internet". There are simply too many people doing too many different things and inventing new ways for people to connect with other people and businesses for any one thing to dominate for very long.
Right now Google is the search engine du jour. YouTube is the default video site and MySpace is the big social networking site. Just as Microsoft's quasi-monopoly is being eroded as Linux makes big gains in the corporate IT landscape, something else will eventually come and bump Google, YouTube and MySpace from their positions in the zeitgeist, just because change is constant and someone will always ome up with something better.
Things move so quickly these days thanks to technological advances and the fact that so many millions of people are involved online - all connected and trying to get out in front that I find it hard to see that anything other than change will stand the test of time. The growth will be wherever people feel like they are getting something they want. Be it a better way to network with others, an easier way to work and shop or just to be entertained.
If I had to place bets, it would be on online entertainment. We will see huge growth in this as more and more people around the world get access to cheap hi-speed internet and can more easily watch movies, TV shows, and play interactive games online.
The other trend that will never die is advertising. Whilst there are growing numbers of people trying to make money online, there will be growing numbers of ways and places to advertise to get attention for their offers.
It will be interesting to read what you and others say.
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