The web was supposed to be the great leveller. But, according to Compete, the top 10 websites account for 40 per cent of all web page views. Topping the charts is MySpace with a staggering 16 per cent of all page views. Figures for time spent and unique visitors tell the same story.

Google, though not right at the top of these rankings, handles 65 per cent of all web searches according to Hitwise and Wikipedia tops Google rankings for millions of queries.

Nicholas Carr, writes in the Guardian on the shrinking web:

On the internet, the big get bigger. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. When the web arrived in the early 1990s, it was heralded as a liberating force that would free us from the confines of gated communities like AOL and Compuserve. The internet was supposed to be an open, democratic medium, an information bazaar putting individuals on the same footing as big companies.

In the end, though, the internet seems to be following the same pattern that has always characterised popular media. A few huge outlets come to dominate readership and viewership and smaller, more specialised ones are consigned to the periphery.

The long tail applies. First there is MySpace, then there is their space and then there is ours. We shall have to make the best of it.

(Hat tip: Read/Write Web).