So far, there are few existing technologies that have successfully crossed the border to mass-market adoption of everyday business addictions. According to the Nielson/Net Ratings, AOL, Yahoo, MSN, and Excite lead the "Top 25 Web Properties of February 2000" as listed in Cyberatlas.com. In Europe, the addiction to cell phones far exceeds that in the US, and therefore the adoption of WAP properties will likely occur there first. On the other hand, early adopters in the US have accepted a larger range of everyday internet e-commerce applications.

There are many technologies currently in use that indicate that the future of mass-market operations will look much different than it does today. From online banking and trading services such as Schwab.com, to entertainment such as Spinner.com and internet-based games, technologies are making great strides in evolving the manner in which we do business, educate our children, and entertain ourselves. According to Cyberatlas, a report compiled by eMarketer states that " The US will continue its e-commerce dominance, capturing 69 percent of total e-commerce dollars by year-end 2000. By 2003, the US share will have slipped to 59 percent. Europe and the Asia-Pacific will easily pick up the slack, garnering 35 percent of total e-commerce between them." It also states "B2B e-commerce will continue to outpace business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce in all countries worldwide. At year-end 2000, B2B will capture $184.85 billion (79 percent) of e-commerce revenues and will grow to $1.26 trillion, (87 percent) in 2003."

The amount of research needed to create a successful business addiction is enormous. From the information architect's perspective, there are a number of questions that need to be answered before a feature list or sitemap can be developed. Consider the following:

• What is the positioning of this business in the market?
• What are the business trends in this market?
• What are the expectations of this market for a new business?
• Who is the competition?
• What are the unique offerings of this business?
• How do people do this [task] now?
• Review on and offline methods of doing what is being proposed.
• What are the advantages to this offering?
• Target market demographics and expectations?
• What are the technology limitations for delivering this product?
• What are the usability expectations and needs of the market for a product in this market?
• What are the current techno-graphics of this audience? What is their comfort level with technology?

To accurately answer these kinds of questions, it is necessary to review the organization's business goals, their funding, and the support and staffing plans. Following technology news such as CNet, Slashdot and Redherring allows for an understanding of what are the current innovations within technology. Business reviews such as Fortune, Forrester and Hoovers.com contribute to a knowledge base on market trends in the technology industry as well as field-specific information. Other resources are statistic-oriented websites such as Cyberatlas.com and Statmarket.com, which focus on providing demographic, geographic, traffic patterns, and browser information. Internal resources are also valuable and provide an opportunity to capitalize on the knowledge base of peers. In addition, information architects need to follow trends in the usability field through books or websites such as that of Jacob Nielson. Information architects must be voracious readers to gain the necessary knowledge to build technology business addictions.