in praise of the world wide web

I know this is a bit 'johnny -come -lately,' but I've been thinking about just what a valuable resource the internet is in terms of sexuality.
1) sex toys
I can't imagine how many more people feel comfortable purchasing their sex accouterments this way than would have felt able to walk into a sex store to browse and purchase. I got my first vibrator this way when I was still shy of doing so in person, which is hard to imagine now. This is also how I procured my harness, which technically I found at Oh My! but which they didn't have in my size at the time.
2) communities
How on earth did people with less than common fetishes find each other, or talk about their kinks before? Personal ads? Those horrible phone dating connection things for which there are far too many television ads? Phone sex services? There are so many resources for finding out about one's kink and other people who might share it via the web.
3) general dating
Seriously. So many people seem to find or nourish their relationships with the help of the internet nowadays. Mine didn't start there exactly, but it certainly was a useful tool in keeping it strong during nearly a year of long-distance. Again I think this is particularly relevant for special-needs/special interest/minority groups. Granted, my attempt at internet personals yielded only creepy old men and emo teen-aged girls, but I've heard many tales of it being quite effective, for everything from the most casual of sex to the most serious of relationships.
4) information
Obviously. When kids aren't allowed to learn about sex in any real way in their schools, and there are so many questions about what kind of care/safer sex/birth control/sti testing methods in so many places, people are given the ability to find them. Of course, there's a lot of misinformation to be had there as well. A friend and I once commiserated about a site reassuring us that we did not, in fact, have herpes following a case of ingrown hairs for one, and pimples for the other.*
5)communication
With significant or less-significant others, sex advice/therapy, and needless to say but said anyway, blogging.

*I'm really so super-responsible about testing, communicating, and being safe(r) but we all get a little paranoid now and again. I am happy to report that said friend is the same way.