The internet as we know it just turned twenty-five years old. From its original use at the National Science Foundation for transferring electronic files, through the growth of the web, email and the Google phenomenon, the Internet’s popularity has exploded. The pace of electronic change is accelerating, leaving many non-technical folk in its wake. Even seasoned technology professionals are losing sight of the new possibilities for business. Where is the edge of the web?

In the 1980s, Tim Berners-Lee created user-friendly World-Wide-Web pages so academic researchers could share their work. Today, the impression is that there’s hardly a business that doesn’t take advantage of the web in some regard: from email and browser-based interfaces, to AOL, search engines and eBay. From eCommerce sites like Amazon.com, to instant messaging and online mapping tools, we appear to be demanding more content, more bandwidth, and now we’re going mobile.

As business people, we are sometimes slow to become aware of new websites or applications – maybe we see them first because our kids are using them. We overhear a colleague mention a new web tool, or we get an invitation to join the latest new online community. Perhaps it begins to dawn on us how these services might be used in business and how our companies, specifically, could benefit.

Two problems: one is that the accelerating pace of change means new tools are springing up daily, so it’s tough to stay abreast; the second is that our competitors may be ahead of us in exploiting the trends.

Recently, the Pew internet and American Life Project conducted a survey and found that adult Americans are broadly divided into three groups when it comes to using technology: 31 percent are elite technology users, 20 percent are moderate users, and the remainder demonstrate little or no usage of the internet or cell phones. Despite the typical media hype, this study shows only about one-quarter of U.S. adults are using the internet regularly. Most are either stuck in decade-old technologies, or don’t seem to be interested in using modern applications at all.

Why aren’t more people using the exciting and valuable new tools available online? Are business professionals the ones using the tools, or are they even aware of the possibilities? How close to the edge of the Web are you?

Ask yourself: have you heard of, and do you understand the potential business implications of internet peer-to-peer file and bandwidth sharing? How about blogs, wikis, folksonomies, podcasts and MySpace? Do you know that YouTube was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion last year, and why? Do you understand what the Semantic Web is about, and are you on top of the phenomenal new applications unfolding in 3D, Virtual World and Geo-referenced spaces?

Perhaps there are some real possibilities to attract and capture new clientele with these applications – to entice a larger fraction of our customers, vendors and employees into benefiting from these tools. Perhaps we can distinguish our companies in the marketplace, outpace our competitors, and surf the tsunami of change for greater business effectiveness.

One great first step is to attend the ITEC events when they reach your city. As the premier conference series dedicated to technology and business, there are entire subject-matter tracks dedicated to new applications and how they can be used to promote your goals.

Another means of staying on top of technology is to subscribe to a handful of topical blogs and take a few minutes each day to educate yourself on the latest trends and applications. If you haven’t done so already, go out to www.del.icio.us , www.digg.com or another consolidation site and set up links to blogs and websites in your areas of interests. If you have expertise to share, get it out there! Visit www.wordpress.com and let the world hear what you have to say.

For most business professionals, it is well worth a little time invested to stay on top of emerging web trends. Besides building confidence that your company is on the right technological track, it could set you well ahead of your competitors as you integrate new tools and ways of thinking into your enterprise.

Tony Hodgson is President of Sales & Marketing of CAP5 Technology Solutions, and founder of the InWorld Alliance (www.inworldalliance.com).