The age where people access the World Wide Web using standard or similarly formatted PCs and browsers is ending. Witness the rise of proprietary platforms like Apple's iPhone / iPad, Amazon's Kindle, Google's Android, and soon Web-connected TVs with their own interactive formats. There are social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, with content behind a password.

Two analysts of Forrester say that "we are now living in the era of Splitnternet." 

"The standardized Web established links, click-throughs, and analytics, which in turn gave rise to now mainstream interactive marketing tools like online advertising, search marketing ads, and e-mail marketing," they say.

The era of the unified Web is gone, and online marketing and advertising might have no choice but to start from scratch.