Web site video has flooded in almost imperceptibly, like the rising tide. And, like that unstoppable tide, it's gathering for a massive push. So you need to move fast to avoid being caught out, because it won't be many months before your carefully crafted text and pictures web site looks like it should be in a museum.

So what's caused this sudden change?

This: a short while ago Adobe (famous for the now universally accepted standard PDF Adobe Acrobat format) quietly bought up Macromedia, creators of a particularly good video compression software, called Flash. Since then, they have been quietly making the Flash video player available free of charge to anyone who wants it. And, just as they did with their Adobe PDF Reader, they produced versions that work with both Macs as well as the ubiquitous PCs. The result is about 98% of internet users can finally view videos in a standard format. So, what Adobe once did for e-book reading, they've now done for video watching.

The second element of this video explosion was the release, last fall, of some amazing video conversion software, which compresses the video file by ten times, without appreciable loss of quality. At a stroke, this allowed web site video to play instantly, it's possible to have video running on a web site immediately the page appears. As the average internet surfer only waits seven seconds for a page to load, this is vital.

These two elements combined were sufficient to create a nuclear style chain reaction, even without the third element also occurring in the late fall.

Nielson-Netratings reported that, as of November 2006, high speed broadband was now installed in 78% of all USA homes. Other developed countries, such as Canada and the UK are not far behind. Therefore the largest part of the on-line audience is able and starting to expect to watch video on-line. Most people have grown up watching TV, rather than reading books. So watching video comes more natural to most than reading.

It's also a fact that most web surfers only stay on a web page for thirty seconds. In that time video can pack a far bigger punch than the greatest headline in the world. There's great wisdom in that saying: "A picture is worth a thousand words".

Bearing all that in mind, you can now see that a web site without video will shortly seem as ancient as a silent movie -- and there won't even be someone playing a piano!

Just like the tide waits for no man, nor does the rapid march of on-line technology.

As with all change, those shrewd enough to both acknowledge and welcome, will enjoy, more free traffic, increased opt-ins, more sales, new products and bigger profits, as the rising tide of web site video brings about the most cataclysmic on-line change since the invention of e-mail.