It’s an interesting thing that an earthquake, which is sudden and very violent, is basically caused by shifts in geologic “plates” on the earth’s crust; shifts that are very slow, and hardly noticable.

So I’m going to describe my personal data point in the fascinating Plate Tectonics of the Internet:

• Today I finally gave up my Yahoo email, after many years. The old interface is crap, the new one too slow and buggy. I’m now on gmail.
• I’ve left TypePad for WordPress. I like both, but the fact is that WordPress is just so much better supported by its community.
• Many months ago I stopped using my MyYahoo page. This page, which I used to refer to obsessively on a daily basis, is now totally dead for me. My old MyYahoo time is now spent (and much more efficiently) on Bloglines.
• The death of Skype has been heralded everywhere since it was bought by eBay. But I use it more than ever, and judging by the “users online” figures, growth is still explosive. I’ve completely given up ICQ and MSN (both way, way too bloated and cartoonish), and I’m itching to get rid of Yahoo but still have too many unduplicated contacts on it.
• It goes without saying that I stopped using that heap of crap code known as Outlook a long time ago. Webmail is the only way to go.
• I have completely stopped using MS Word, and now pretty much just write on email and Writely.
• Obvious, but must be said: stopped using IE a long time ago, 100% Firefox.
• PayPal still rocks- nothing’s been able to get me off using it.
• Most Web2.0 websites are not actually hooking me, especially the calendars.
• Blogs are continuing to grow in importance as my source of news, professional networking, and even education. But newspapers are still important.

What I think would be interesting is if everyone in the blogosphere took a minute to note how their own behavior was shifting. But if my own behaviour is any indication, then in the future Microsoft and Yahoo are at greatest risk- the way things are going, I can easily imagine living without the products of either of these companies, something unimaginable to me just a couple years ago. What are your Internet Plate Tectonics?