Stuart (Stu) Stacey is President and Founder
of Casemind Inc., an executive management and marketing firm serving and investing in
the business management, information
media and SMB sector. As an entrepreneur
and senior advisor, Mr. Stacey has become a recognized idea generator and business builder.

Recently, Mr. Stacey has accepted the post of Director of Sales and Channel Management
for Plexxis Technologies. "I have always
enjoyed working with Jory Pollard, Juan
(Henriquez) and the managers of Plexxis
Technologies and Plexxis Software. I'm very happy to accept this post and for Casemind
to continue assisting the Plexxis team."

"I remember when I was first introduced to the Internet in the early 90's. I was managing a Toronto advertising firm and was enthusiastic about pushing digital design from the printed page to the commercial application of a web page."

As quickly as that "moment" was achieved,
so began my journey to both teach and learn about the right and wrong ways to approach ideas, business and people.

Stuart has worked in a variety of sectors and industries. The insurance industry, advertising and multimedia, I.T and web-based firms,
both private and public, hardware and
software technology, leasing and financial sector, in manufacturing, even home decor distribution and sales.

There are many ideas, applications and even more processes for achieving a goal. I have seen things done the right way and watched them fail because of poor communication, planning and not taking advantage of opportunities. It is great to be able to offer my experience and help companies grow, build their business and teams. I have enjoyed working with and consulting for such firms
as Sutton Javelin, CIT, Alliance, Microforum,
IBM Canada, Asia Online, BMO, Merx, VTS, Gilbro, Sentient Data, various levels of
Canadian government and more.

 In 1994, we estimated that there were probably 5000 websites; the Internet research organization Netcraft, based in England, started tracking the number of websites in 1995, then pegging it at 18,000. It's easy to forget how relatively early on in the innovation cycle of the web we find ourselves.

Whether we are in Web 2.0 or moving to a
3.0 era, the on-going growth and striking dynamism continues to inspire.
Of course, we've had the dot-com boom and
subsequent nuclear winter, but innovation requires the forest to be burnt down from
time to time to allow new shoots to sprout.

"As I reflect on some of the most recent
Internet trends, hot companies, and what
might lie ahead, I find these five mind-blowing web stats that should excite all of us to stay tuned and hold on fast. Here they are — five pretty incredible web stats to drop at your
next meeting, dinner conversation, or
airplane ride.

Mind-Blowing Web Stat #1: 40,000-fold increase in the number of websites in 15
short years. If the number of approximately
5000 websites in 1994 is correct and that
 we are now part of some 200 million plus websites today, then we've experienced a stunning 40,000-fold increase in number
of websites. How's that for a growth rate?
It also helps explain why Kevin Ham, a Canadian Internet entrepreneur, is minting money from the domain names he owns.
Mr. Ham owns some 100,000 domain names worth hundreds of millions and that generate estimated ad revenue of $70 million annually. Great foresight, on Ham's part, to see that good domain names are like scarce
waterfront property.

Mind-Blowing Web Stat #2: It feels like it
was only yesterday that Evan Williams
coined the term, "blogger" as founder of Blogger.com before taking the head post
at Twitter. Today, the blogosphere is doubling
between once and twice a year and there are over one million blog posts daily.

Mind-Blowing Web Stat #3: Speaking of Evan and Twitter, there have now been more than five billion tweets. I admit it: I was a pretty big Twitter skeptic, but now I'm a pretty big Twitter fan. My guess is that Mr. Ham and others are trying to find ways to squat on as many Twitter handles as possible as it will become increasingly difficult to get the twitter alias you want. I stumbled across this "gigatweet" counter on the web. I don't know the accuracy of the source but this is a pretty cool real-time counter of the numbers of tweets — it is worth clicking through.

Mind-Blowing Web Stat #4: Not to leave out some of the other obvious big web names of our day, here are two stunning stats on Google and Facebook. Google still owns the search market. Sources estimate that the search goliath receives about two billion queries per day. That said, I think I'm more impressed by InsideFacebook.com's estimates that the social network is adding 700,000 new users per day.

Mind-Blowing Web Stat # 5: Okay, this is as much of a predictive statement as a stat. For some time, I have periodically checked which sites are in the top ten, as task made much easier now with the likes of Alexa. What is amazing is that whether you look at the global top ten or US top ten websites, about half of the sites are five- to six-year-old companies (e.g. YouTube, Blogger, and Facebook). The implication is that we'll continue to see a pretty high-rate of churn amongst the top ten. What other industry do you know where so many in the top ten market share positions are companies that are younger than a first grader? Big names that may be top of the world today are being bombarded by the threat of new Internet start-ups every day. Twitter was born in 2006 and has already hit #13 on Alexa's top global list and #12 on its U.S. list. How long will it take to break into the top ten? The answer: not long at all. And this is what continues to make life interesting in the world wide web of disruptive change and unpredictable innovation.