Are you old enough to be able to look back to when the word wide web was the geeky preserve of scientists and other types of people who thought ‘fun’ meant waiting six hours to read a website about old kettle components? Those days are long gone, but luckily non-geeks have made them a minority pursuit}. Millions of people, freed from slow downloads by increased broadband speeds, are taking to the internet as a primary source of entertainment.

You might remember that not so long ago video technology for the internet was a distant dream, but today YouTube and other video websites are known throughout the land and have sapped office productivity enormously. Whether seeking a step-by-step online tutorial to show you how to mend a 1977 Austin Allegro, or just want to catch family movies,online video content has a unique source of content.

This is no longer solely the preserve of the amateur. If you’re after some more traditional television shows even the likes of the BBC are making their broadcasts available for free through their own custom format. UK users can watch BBC TV for free on their computer. Meanwhile, other sites offer more specific kinds of content: joost.com broadcast out-of-syndication films and other peculiar stuff alongside mainstream content which is licensed to them.

Increasingly popular and lucrative gambling websites are also packing in the visitors. Poker was a natural fit for the internet and got first-mover-advantage. It continues to be the most popular kind of online game.

Because gambling is frequently banned, the operators often base their operations in territories where gambling is legal. Accessing such sites from the user’s own country is deemed to be legal because the games are taking place beyond the writ of the country’s law. Dozens of alternative to poker have been quick to leap on this trend – online bingo games being an increasingly popular choice, particularly among women for whom poker has failed to much inroad.

Another source of entertainment that has seen a massive boost in popularity with the internet is everyone’s favourite: the argument! If you’ve ever visited a blog you’ll know that you can find yourself pitched into a furious argument about almost any topic. It might seem odd but are countless thousands for whom arguing the toss over Britney vs Christina is great fun.

The internet has also created entirely new categories of entertainment which have no corollary in the pre-internet era. Innovative website systems allow people to lead virtual lives in virtual worlds in real time. More popular still are sites such as Facebook which have hundreds of in-built games and competitions which can surprisingly addicted when shared with friends. More scurrilously, other sites encourage users to vote for the sexiest photograph from those uploaded to their site

It’s hard to believe that recently this was all fantasy, but now it’s an inescapable and ever-increasingl part of our life at home and at work.