ABSTRACT
Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google . . . If you
happen to read this chapter fairly shortly after the release of this book, then these
brand names may appear timely, relevant and a current reflection of the ‘state of
the art’ of the Internet. If, however, you read these lines, let’s say 20 years from
its publication date, then these might seem like anachronistic remnants of a long
forgotten age, an age where the Internet had barely become of age. Indeed the
Internet – and the types of branding, marketing and advertising featured on it –
has seen such an accelerated development that we almost forget that it is just over
20 years old. Over that period, it has grown from a humble set of interconnected
computers to the vast, global network that consumers use to buy products, com ‐
municate with companies and each other, work on projects and look up information.
Indeed, some estimates have it that all the information of all existing webpages
