Well, yes there was a time before the internet and it was a time when most people were not constantly connected to everyone else.  Now though we are always connected and with the great technology available it is easy enough to do. You can do everything from finding discount insurance plans or reserving a hotel room. It’s crazy! One of the best things to stay connected is Skype.  Look below to see how far Skype has come.

Skype, Gmail, MySpace, Twitter, Foursquare,  and yes — even MySpace — are included in the infographic,  which also shows the proportion of their users accessing the service via mobile devices.   Because of this, it should be a clear indication of the direction the world is going:  from social locked to desktop PCs or laptops, to one the go devices that allow them to stay connected at all times.  It seems that now, having a mobile device as one’s main means of using social media is universally prized.  Check this out for more data:

If is certainly debatable.  A few months ago, before it went public, Google+ seemed poised to take over social media and unseat Facebook.  People felt sure that this was finally the next big thing from Google.  It was going to be the reason Facebook became the next MySpace.  And since it was linked with all Google’s other great products, it would probably be even better in every possible way.  Here is an infographic to show you a match-up between Facebook and Google+.

Apparently, these people tend to be loud and proud.  They don’t make any excuses for their rabid enthusiasm over the latest gadgets designed “by Apple in California” and “assembled in China.”  They’ll be the first to let you know how it makes them feel to own and use Apple products, how many of them they own, and how discriminating their tastes are.  In fact, several of them got adt just to protect their hordes of Mac goodies.

Click on the infographic below to get inside the minds of Mac fans:

This could be a very smart move by Sprint initially;  the company lags far behind the nation’s top two mobile providers in subscriptions and profits — and being the only major company to offer an unlimited data plan could lure customers from Verizon and AT&T.  But is an unlimited data plan sustainable?

As people scuttle to find the perfect carrier for their iPhone addictions, the following infographic will be helpful.  Check out all the features offered by the big three, right here:

Amazon began as a simple online bookstore. Because of its online strategy, Amazon enjoyed the advantage of having more titles than the traditional brick-and-mortar stores. It has since expanded far beyond only books, and now sells all kinds of products.  Immediately after its IPO in 1997, investors complained at the slow growth in the company’s stock prices — but those early investors are now laughing all the way to the bank.

Here is an infographic with some historical information about the company that started the online retail revolution.  You can make the graphic larger by clicking:

No one  can say at this point how impressed the millions of former Netflix customers will be by the company’s decision to quash Qwikster; yes, the CEO has admitted the whole idea was a mistake — and yes, there seems to be new hope that other recent mistakes might also be corrected.  But in the meantime, none of this changes the fact that Netflix has lost some important premium content agreements with giants in media, many of which were also their most popular titles.

Here is an infographic that can help make sense of how far Netflix has fallen in the past seven months.  Instead of a tragic fail story, perhaps we should look at it as a good example of how not to do business online: