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The three online goals
I can think of only three things users do at a website: connect, transact, and find out.
Many top sites are known best for one of those. Consider Facebook (connect), Amazon (transact), and Wikipedia (find out)... though of course lots of sites include some of all three.
Of the three goals, which is the oldest, in Internet history? Connect, of course. Whether through the fledgling email system from three decades ago, or USENET from two decades ago, or the chat rooms and "online communities" from a decade ago, or today's trend of your choice (Web 2.0, social networking, social graph), connecting has always been a major part of the online experience.
What's funny is that, every few years, the very old idea is branded with a new buzzword, as though it's never been done online before.
What about "search"? :)
@San - I would look at search as a "step" or "activity" toward achieving one of the three goals Mark mentions.
I wouldn't expect that users search just for the sake of searching. Instead they search to find a product to buy (transact) or maybe search to find information about something (find out), etc.
Reminds me of this essay by Dirk Knemeyer: http://www.experiencethread.com/articles/documents/article44.pdf
Yep I see search as a way to go forward to one of the three goals... or if you're Googling something, that would be "finding out."
Search and Connect used to be the same thing. If you think of the early 90s, information was sorted and place into portals and rings, which inherently were communities of people, not just ideas. At some point, transact, connect, and find out are just basic human needs based on economics, social sciences, and/or cognitive sciences (respectively).
Everything old is new - ey Mark. I say the same about online communities and all the latest talk around community managers. What HAS changed is the barrier to entry tools are so much easier to use/build.