In effect, Microsoft treated the Internet as if it were merely a new channel on which it could broadcast content, as if what had been invented was an extension of cable television. But the impulse was not altogether misguided, for someone was going to make money selling all of the attention the Internet was capturing. It just wasn’t going to be Microsoft. The most successful contestant would be the one that truly understood the new platform and how it would be used.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 869