What do online terrorism, buying nanotechnology, and learning all have in common?

It’s the one place that has no boundaries, no restrictions, and a whole lot of potential. If you though about the last Hollywood movie, close but not quite! Not surprising, it has become one of the most powerful tools the world has seen to date. Pretty much anything can be done on the web, even getting married online… believe it or not. Why would anyone do something that sacred online? Beats the heck out of me but it’s prob being done as we speak.

Bare with me here. Let’s imagine the following: You’re walking down the street when all of a sudden someone comes up to you and asks, “Howdy! Do you know where 4444 Lexington Park Avenue is? I’ve been walking around for hours and I’m pretty lost.”

Your answer: “Fear not stranger!” You quickly take out your iPhone and fire up Google Earth. “It appears, by looking at my new shiny iPhone, that the address is 5 miles thataway, take a left when you see this building here (you show him your gadget) and presto your there.”

Stranger: “Well gee mister you sure are a smart son of a gun. Take care now.”

You: “No problemo.”

Alright so that was a quick glance at how good of a screen play writer I am. Anyways, that’s just one great use of the Internet these days. Mobile Google Earth. Forget having to own a Lexus with GPS, now all you need is a mobile with online capabilities. Here are a couple of other neat things people are now doing on line. Let’s take a breather first… Ok forget it just click this link below.

1. Political Online Warfare - Forget toe to toe guerrilla style warfare. Now a days there are new dangers lurking on the net, Political Hacker attacks! A well put together group can cause massive amounts of damage to countries. Believe it or not Al Qaeda has been recruiting “cyber legions” for online warfare. Anyone else seen the last Die Hard? At the time of writing this post there is supposed to be some sort of a hacker attack planned by Al Qaeda on November 11th. We’ll see what truth there is in that.

2. New Age e-Commerce - Anyone can do online e-commerce. Its getting to be a huge multi billion dollar industry. We can buy and sell anything online. Who doesn’t know e-Bay? The place where you could probably sell your own mother. Today we’re seeing new age products become available. Just some of the things found online are:

3. Self Online Branding - After years of working at someone else’s company, I though to myself if this what I actually want to do with my life. Well to me, this is by far one of the best things to do online. Starting a business online is an extremely cost effective method to label your self a CEO. And as a matter of fact, the young guns who are now rich started their company under 30. Well not to put an age on it… but this is the generation who might be giving your kids their future jobs.

Take the start up of the biggest online companies today, such as Google, Yahoo, YouTube, MySpace, etc… I could go on. But what does this mean to you? To me, it means inspiration. It means this is just the beginning. There is plenty of room for anyone to succeed, doesn’t matter the age, to start up a successful online company and watch it give fruit.

4. Thirst for Knowledge - This is HUGE. I mean BIG. Anyone, from anywhere, at anytime can learn anything. From Computer Science to car repair. From a bachelors to a master’s degree. Information is one of the core reasons of why the World Wide Web exists, and one of my favorite reasons of use.

In different parts of the world where education is scarce, a simple computer and internet connection can solve a lot of problems. I believe that we have relied way too much on paper made certificates that shows potential employers what we know. I think it’s time to move on to a more “open source” way of demonstrating our abilities.

Create something and put your name on it! Anyone who’s heard the phrase, “Knowledge is Power,” can begin to grasp its true meaning when they have the “knowledge” to do something useful.

5. Organizing the Web- One of the ways the Internet is indexed correctly now a days, meaning separating the good from the junk, is by people like us. Google is good at finding relevant information, but it’s not very good at finding interesting stuff and the results can be easily manipulated. So we must rely on Social Networking sites like stumbleupon, del.icio.us, and digg to find stuff that human beings actually like to read.

Would it be possible for these types of sites to replace search engines like Google? This could be if social sites we’re to implement search engine capabilities to their service. Even better, what if Google were to implement Social Networking capabilities to the Google algorithm. If Yahoo, or MSN were to apply this, I’m almost certain Google would be easily overrun.

6. Using Satellites - One of my favorites pieces of software of all time: GOOGLE EARTH. This thing is amazing, I don’t think people give it enough credit. With GE, anyone can have access to a satellite picture of the entire planet. Ever wonder what the Microsoft HQ looks like, Apple? Even the Playboy Mansion. It’s all accessible! Google Earth also allows for viewing the stars. Take a look at the constellations, planets, moons, and even Aquarius, Leo, or Taurus stars. I’ve easily spent hours just messing with it.

7. Saving the World! - If you’ve ever wanted to do something for our tiny planet Earth, then this section is for you. World hunger, HIV/AIDS, pollution, just Google for this stuff and millions of sites come up. My favorites:

This was my little list of 7 Amazing things Being Done Online. I really don’t want to be cliche, everyone else who write these types of posts always says the same thing at the end…. but it’s true. UGH Ok I’ll say it, “It’s only the beginning.” Yes , it’s true. Especially with mobile devices taking a plunge into the market. I fall into the type that envy people with new shiny iPhones.