The Internet has revolutionized scores of industries and businesses, given birth to new ones (see eBay, Facebook) and written the obituary for others (see newspapers, travel agents). Because a generation or two have grown up on the Internet, and because it is so commonplace, we often don’t realize just how profound its changes have been and how profound they continue to be. One of the great paradoxes of fundamental change is that the people least aware of it are the ones most involved in it. And while it is always risky to say that the Internet has transformed one industry more than others, it is also becoming clearer and clearer that because of the Internet, qualitative research will never be the same.
