Google has been voted the most significante-commercedevelopment of the past
decade in a poll carried out by the Software and Information
Industry Association (SIAA).
The top 10 developments in e-commerce were ranked by policy and
industry experts from a wider list of developments chosen by SIIA
staff. Members of the association in the US said the search engine
fundamentally changed the way people use the internet more than any
other event in the past 10 years.
"It is no surprise to see Google rank as the most important
e-commerce development in the last 10 years. But the list also
includes several eCommerce tools that have become so commonplace,
we almost forget they did not exist 10 years ago," said Ken Wasch,
President of SIIA
The arrival of
broadband connections was ranked second, followed by
eBay
auctions,Amazon.com and
Google ad words. The
Blackberry was
ranked tenth for giving users the web on the go, but it was beaten
by the prevalence of user-generated content which came in at eight
in the list.
"At first [user generated content] was a playground for kids.
Now, sites like
YouTube are the embodiment of
Web 2.0. It is a
must-be-seen place for presidential candidates, a battleground in
the copyright wars, and a vital distribution point for major media
companies or members of the public to deliver a message to the
world," said Wasch.