A long way to go

It's been an eye opener talking to some small business people recently about their perspective on the Web. One business has a (pretty ugly) website which doesn't even list its street address, another doesn't have a website and its emails bounce because the mailbox is full. Both are relatively successful businesses in the services and manufacturing sectors.

auDA, the Australian Domain name authority, recently announced that there were now in excess of 500,000 .com and .net domains registered. Many representing the calling cards of businesses who are still grappling with this new medium.

It would be easy to dismiss these businesses as laggards, but away from the bleeding edge, where I've spend most of my working life, it's all about where the next dollar is coming from. And when it comes to a website or other areas of IT, they need a trusted party who gives them the right advice. Who is that? Where do they find it?