If one can get beyond this primitive method of marketing research (which is not all that easy considering the financial power and vested interest of focus based marketing research), one should be able to see that web sites are really the "focus" groups today. In effect, they are like sophisticated electric stores where the actions of visitors can be tracked in all the aisles (web pages) they browse through.

The fact that Webster are electronic stores is not really news, though. What is news is the idea that simply clicking onto the internet may in fact be a giant store where all actions might be tracked. In effect, this is already being done with discussion groups on sites such as DejaNews (http://www.dejanews.com) which is able to sort threads of any discussion group web surfers have been in.

But might there be a profile of a web surfer which is a composite of all sites he or she has surfed to over a certain period of time? You won't hear much mention of this right now because of rights of privacy arguments under the constitution but in many ways this is the real marketing promise of the internet.

Within this scenario, there are a few interesting variations. One is that individual internet sessions might become "smart" in the sense that each web click will define the surfer's interests and lead to CGI relational database matching of banner ads which become more and more specific given the greater number of clicks.

For instance, think of the AltaVista search engine (http://altavista.digital.com) and the banner ads which appear on the right based on the search words chosen. Or, the Amazon site which suggests similar books when particular books are searched for.

Why not a type of banner ad which stays with the surfer (based on "cookie" technology) and appears even when they leave Altavista or any of the search engines? These banner ads, in effect, would not be based on words typed into the form of a search engine but rather created by the clicks of the web surfer. The more clicks in a particular session, the more defined the banner ads and the suggestions of relational sites for the surfer to click to.

Expand your thinking for a minute beyond individual web sessions to what might be termed "surf histories" based on accumulated web sessions. In this scenario, once one clicks onto the web, suggestions are immediately made based on a composite of past surfing history.

Certainly the movement towards micro-defining consumers by choices they make is not a new concept. In the 80s, there was Stanford's VALs market segmentation which segmented consumer markets by values, attitudes and lifestyles. The VALs system was expanded in the 80s into CACIs 43 demographic "acorns" today or the Clarista segmentation. This research was based in great part of matching consumer zip codes with demographic and psychographic information. For example, if one lives in the 43357 zip code there is a close correlation that they may subscribe (or be a potential subscriber) to Country Living Magazine.

But why not focus on web surf patterns rather than magazine purchases or hobby activities? Later, the surf patterns can be matched up to particular product categories but this will never be arrived at if the marketing focus is pushed away from the web towards purchases and activities off the web.

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There is another side to the coin here. Along with histories of web surfers which can be developed are also histories of web sites. Web sites can be viewed themselves as individual web surfers, defined by the histories of the web surfers who come to the site.

And it is here that there is the possibility for CGI relational database matching far beyond what is currently seen on the web.

One of the hottest topics in web marketing is the creation of virtual communities based around similar interests. A key book in this area is Net.Gain (1997) by the McKinsey & Company consultants John Hagel III and Arthur Armstrong.

Why not have virtual communities continually refined and "delivered" automatically to particular Webster? In other words, why should a web site have to make any type of choice in the matter? The choice has already been made. For each web site there is an index of web surfers which (based on their click history) have said that they should be part of a particular community. Why not automatically link them up to the particular site and establish this virtual community? In effect, all decisions are made for you on the internet if you truly believe in the concept of the web. Any decision you make is outside the web philosophy and really a "wrong" decision.

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Apart from strategic marketing advantages to companies which are able to bundle and deliver histories of web surfers, there may also exist broad value in this method to overall culture studies.

Throughout the twentieth century, a number of broad theories have been advanced which attempt to explain mass cultural movements and the "zeitgeist" of particular times. Carl Jung's concept of the collective unconscious and Lloyd deMause's psychohistory concept of cultural fantasy cycles immediately come to mind. There are certainly others.

Might the web present the best test scenario to see if these concepts possess any scientific validity?

Our research on modern symbolism contained in The Symbolism of Place and Symbolism of Popular Culture suggests that a possible approach to determining if these theories possess validity is by monitoring the leading products of popular culture. Products, we content, are the true modern symbols.

In effect, do products such as the leading films, TV programs, toys, celebrities, books and music demonstrate dynamic patterns of symbolism by overall movement between dualities and sequential steps in this movement? And, do leading products show synchronistic alignments to particular periods of time?

Much of our method is based on identifying leading products at particular points in time. But, the idea of the web as one great store and the ability to create a "history" (biography?) of web surfers may be far more important than box office film trends or Arbitron ratings for top TV programs.

Psychologist William Sulis suggests that ant colonies may present a model of Jung's collective unconscious. The research on ants by Pulitzer Prize winning scientist E.O.Wilson at Harvard seems to validate this conclusion. Do all the clicks on the Internet present a representation of the collective unconscious that Jung was only able to speculate about before the electronic era?

There is no better time than now to put old Jung to the test.