Instant messaging
When people make the first acquaintance with the internet they don't even imagine what other possibilities it has to offer besides just viewing websites. In the 1990's the first thing men usually did when they first connected to the internet was to search for websites about things that they are most interested in, like cars, careers, gadgets, politics, finances and so on. Women in the first place logged on to websites about fashion, hairstyles, celebrities etc. But that was a while ago. Besides viewing websites, instant messaging is probably one of the weightiest factors that make people connect to the Internet in the first place. And this can be easily understood: the hundreds of instant messengers existing today provide their users with the possibility of easy and fast communication not only with the people in their neighborhood or their country, but with people all around the world! And what is more important, such services (well, the majority of them) are free of charge! This has literally changed the market of telecommunications since first internet messengers first appeared. People no longer need to pay large sums of money to call other countries and in every single place in the world where there is internet connection there is possibility to stay in touch with the people you need to stay in touch, for free. The only thing you need to pay for is the fee to your ISP which is constantly falling due to the high level of competition between the providers of telecommunication services today.