Web tracking firm comScore released its 2007 Internet Year in Review report showing that the “biggest winners . . . featured some of the top Internet brands inclduing Google, Facebook, Wikipedia and Craiglist.”No surprise there. The Internet, which is “democratic” in terms of access to downloads, is a ruthless centralizer of attention and advertising — and thus opportunity to create sites with meaningful traffic and reach. I started to notice this in a 2005 posting (Niche Rule) that summarized elements of a 61-page report from the American Press Institute’s Media Center. Here is one excerpt from the chapter titled “Economics and Investment”:

“If a business plan is based on an advertising model, the recent hype over Internet advertising growth must be tempered by the realization that only a few large Web sites generate a majority of the advertising and that the growth is limited to only a few formats, such as keyword searched . . . The top 50 websites generate 96 percent of all Internet advertising spending, leaving little room for the remaining hundreds of online companies.”

These littler Internet players, it seems, will have to create value in new ways such as those hinted at the the recent posting by cyber seer Kevin Kelly (see Better than Free) in which he advises Web-based businesses to get a patron, for instance.

Any takers?