The Internet enters a bold second act – Consumers seem to be the only sure winners.

Google, the company that’s king of the online search, recently offered to provide wireless Internet access to the entire city of San Francisco — for free. Apple Computer now offers an iPod music player so tiny it could get lost in your wallet. And the British Broadcasting Corp. is starting to offer many of its TV programs in digitized formats online.

In their own ways, these developments point to a common theme: Led by the Internet, the high-tech industry appears to be entering a vibrant new phase of both growth and upheaval.

This is a far different boom from the dotcom craze of the late 1990s. It is the Web’s sober second act, characterized not by soaring stock prices but by forces that are challenging traditional industries — from publishing to telecommunications — to adopt new business plans. Consumers seem to be the only sure winners.

By Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-10-10-web-second-act_x.htm