Welcome to the world’s new front porch.

I’m talking about the Internet and the World Wide Web.

It used to be that neighbors gathered on front porches to swap the latest news, share the neighborhood gossip, learn what was going on in their friend’s lives. Today, the pace of life has changed. Busyness, crime, home design and fast-paced lifestyles has made front porches pretty rare.

So… we turn to the Net.

It’s the same thing with media. It used to be we all gathered around our TV at 6PM to watch the evening news. Or we read the morning newspaper at breakfast. Today, news is on a 24 hour cycle and newspapers are almost obsolete, with many no longer even providing home delivery.

The world has become wired, connected and in communications like never before, thanks to the Internet and the World Wide Web. Smartphones, tablets, iPads, iPhones, Droids, Backberrys,  notebooks, netbooks, laptops and desktops deliver nonstop news and information. We now have e-mail, apps, RSS readers, IM, texting, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and social media.

It’s On The Net News.

That’s us. That’s what this blog network is all about. And the trend is increasing…exponentially. By 2015, nearly 3 billion people will be using the Internet — more than 40% of the world’s projected population. By 2015, one million minutes of video – the equivalent of 674 days – will cross the internet every second.

Consider these facts, as compiled by Google:

• 90% of consumers use the internet to research vehicle purchases.
• It is estimated that by 2012, 90% of data will be video
• It is estimated that globally, over 62 million consumers will have internet access in their cars by 2016.
• Social sharing now produces an estimated 10% of all web traffic and 31% of referral traffic to sites from search engines and social networks.
• The number of mobile subscriptions in the world is expected to pass 5 billion in 2010 according to the ITU. That would mean that more people today have access to a mobile than the number of people, United Nations say, have a clean toilet

So there you go. Welcome to On The Net News.