Great post and link from both Seth Gecko on a post from Chris Salic about an old back issue of Internet World (i'm tired now) with a round up of the best of the internet from 1994 and predictions for 1995.
The US was always a good five or so years ahead of the game with the internet and looking at the commercial possibilities from the get go. Free local calls made dial up access available to everyone, with most people paying a flat subscription fee every month for unlimited access, developing the channel to something akin to radio or tv. The success of early startups such as Craig's Lists also found a way to utilise the channel in a meaningful way to everyone (house hunting, dating, online gaming, news / content aggregation and spam / scams).
One prediction that jumped out at me was this one "There will be a concerted effort by the U.S. Congress to regulate content on the Internet." This never really transpired, but it pertinent now given recent rumblings from US government that they may impose tax legislation onto virtual currency, doing away with the "commerce without borders" ethos of the web as we've come to love and know it.
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