Back in "the day" when you connected to a
website, you just loaded the
website code (HTML, PHP etc.) and images from the server/s hosting the
website. Today you load all that, plus load adverts (usually flash-based)
from other websites, connect
towww.googleanalytics.com (or similar
websites) and perhaps a few other sites too. Those of you on a fast
connection may not notice it, but as I'm on dial-up (and have been for the
last 10 years) I can actually see what is going on.