http://www.businessweek.com/globalb...20070328_085312.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5
It is weird reading articles like that while most of the Internet is so USA orientated that you sometimes feel like you would have to move to USA to even do online business (Yahoo! Publishers, Google Checkout, and well PayPal is also kind of out of my reach). So what do you think, is USA really falling behind or is this report just another pointless table? I mean, I haven't read the whole report, but do you really think China is ahead of Japan or Germany? I am also a bit skeptical about Estonia's position - 20th isn't really a bad spot, but how many countries are there that have arranged e-elections (electing parliament over the Internet), where most of the tax declarations are filled online (and it takes only few minutes), where online banking is more widely spread than... well, most of the transactions are done online, where even a gas station wouldn't survive without free wifi area, where you pay for parking via SMS, where you can pay via SMS if you have forgotten your credit card at home (this isn't very widely spread due to the fact that credit card payments are a lot easier/faster), where parents can snoop after their children using e-school, where you can create a company over the internet and it takes less that 24h, where you can order a bank loan over SMS, where most of the people have ID-cards that can be used to verify your identity over the Internet (and, for example, to log into online bank), where you are not cool if you do not have a rate.ee account (it is kind of like myspace, but the main point of this is that you have to upload a picture of yourself and the others can comment and rate it. BTW I am not cool
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