Is the Internet Recession Proof?

I was reading this article on the Times website earlier, and have come across several articles on the subject recently as people start to wonder what the impact of a recession might be on internet based businesses. Many of the articles I've seen look at the downturn in 2001 and when the dotcom bubble burst.

Interestingly, another article I've been reading talks about how Google's market share of online advertising is still growing.

In 2001, the internet (as we know it now) was still very much in its infancy and although the technology to build interactive sites was there, people's ability to look at them wasn't (remember the dial up years?). People rely much more on the internet than in 2001 for almost everything from banking, shopping to keeping in touch with friends etc, so any downturn is likely to be quite different from the experiences of 2001.

Personally I can't see the 'internet' being affected too much, it's more a question of how businesses react and usually the first thing to be cut is a marketing budget. A slowdown in online advertising is very likely, almost inevitable. Having said that, with excellent website traffic measurement tools (such as Google Analytics) and a much wider awareness of what visitors are doing on websites, companies have a much better idea of which areas of their online marketing / marketing as a whole are working and which aren't so any activities that aren't performing well are likely to be dropped.

Whatever happens, it's not going to stop people going online, doing whatever it is they like doing online, and blogging about it!