Ever since the invention of the printing press, the world has changed irrevocably. For the first time, the thoughts of a select few could be read or heard by countless people who would never know them except for their names. This represented a huge leap in the evolution of mankind, and represented the beginning of the information revolution.

Printing presses soon spawned newspapers, and the invention of radio and television saw the birth of broadcast media. Print and electronic media left an indelible imprint upon the minds of millions of people, making lives richer and more meaningful. However, the relatively high barriers to entry in the broadcasting industry meant that a select few broadcasters had the ability to spread their message to the population that was a mere consumer of information. Although this increased the value of the broadcast industry, it also limited opportunities for the masses.

The World Wide Web has revolutionized the way we humans create, process and consume information. Today, anyone with ideas can be a publisher. While the World Wide Web has given great opportuitty to millions of people around the world, it has also eaten away at the domain of the traditional media. Today, people prefer to log onto the Web to read news, and to post their opinions on it. Today, media has become more of a dialogue, a two way communication process that encourages instant interaction between publisher and reader. Roles have reversed, bringing minds closer.

This has also changed the face of marketing. Today, marketing and advertising have become more personalized than ever before. Advertisements are served based on demographic information. Users are increasingly being targetted individually, increasing returns on advertisement investments. Businesses are shifting their advertising budgets to online advertising, a fact that is causing great concern in traditional media circles. This has also led the big traditional media companies to try and diversify into online media. News Corp’s acquisition of MySpace is a prime example of this practice.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that people seem to increasingly prefer online video and multimedia to television. Whether this is due to the increased interactivity available online is anyone’s guess. But there is an increasing sense among people on big social bookmarking websites that more and more people are preferring online video to television. This has great ramifications for the video advertising industry.