I reiterate an earlier statement by Josh Stylman: man, I wish Andy Weissman blogged more.

msg:

tedr shares a comment left by Andy of BetaWorks in response to a quote posted by Sean Parker saying web usage is moving from information-seeking to network-oriented patterns.

………………….

So I think this is too general. 

I would break it down as follows - and these phases all bleed into each other:

1.  first phase was ISP phase - content and distribution distributed thru the ISP on ramps.  ISPs provided access and services
2.  second phase was portals (AOL and the like) - characterized by the idea that all your services and content are under one roof
3.  third phase = search (characterized by the idea “you dont need to remember anything just need to know where to find it” - that’s why the Google UI was so much more radical than given credit for)
4.  fourth phase - just beginning now - “real time social distribution” (“if something is important it will find me”) - characterized by the final breakdown of the traditional media content producer/distributor/consumer buckets, which now blend into one (and indeed there are no more consumers, there are “users”).

Each phase lasts about 10 years.