When we think of the Internet, we generally think of Amazon, Google, Hotmail, Napster, MySpace, and other sites
for buying products, searching for information, downloading entertainment, chatting with friends, or posting photographs.
In the academic literature about the Internet, however, these uses are rarely covered. The Internet and American
Business fills this gap, picking up where most scholarly histories of the Internet leave off--with the commercialization
of the Internet established and its effect on traditional business a fact of life. These essays, describing challenges
successfully met by some companies and failures to adapt by others, are a first attempt to understand a dynamic
and exciting period of American business history.
Tracing the impact of the commercialized Internet since 1995 on American business and society, the book describes
new business models, new companies and adjustments by established companies, the rise of e-commerce, and community
building; it considers dot-com busts and difficulties encountered by traditional industries; and it discusses such
newly created problems as copyright violations associated with music file-sharing and the proliferation of Internet
pornography.