Andy Beal on his site Marketing Pilgrim posted a few stats that I found really interesting. He started out with Stop the Press: The Internet is Cool! He then went on to quote an Edison Media Research that was done in 2002 and again in 2007 that asked people what they thought of different types of media and how essential the types of media were.

Medium	Coolness 2002	Coolness 2007	Most essential 2002	Most essential 2007
Television	48%	35%	39%	36%
Internet	25%	39%	20%	33%
Radio	16%	13%	26%	17%
Newspaper	3%	4%	11%	10%

Over the intervening years the Internet has almost taken on a life of it own. From the study I would have said that the majority of people are becoming less interested in media and what is presented to them. It is only the internet that has moved in the opposite direction with an increase in coolness and necessity.

The obvious question is why? What is different between the internet and the other forms of media? The most glaring difference for me is the fact that the internet has become interactive. End users are rarely invited to participate effectively in television, radio or the newspaper. However with the internet each user can be individually invited to join in the activity and be made to feel welcome.

It is this ability to involve end users in the internet experience that the internet world has dubbed web 2.0 And it is web 2.0 that is drawing more and more people to explore the world of interactive, engrossing and addictive information swapping.

So here is to an Essentially Cool Internet and its interactivity.