Online shopping sales figures in the UK for the first quarter this year were 123 per cent up on the same period in 2003, according to Visa. UK consumers spent £2.4bn.

Even given the fact that Visa is using the figures to promote the launch of its password protection system, there is plenty of other evidence to point to the growth of internet-based business.

Dotcom icons such as Amazon, eBay and the UK's own lastminute.com have all reported profits, albeit inconsistently.

Business-to-business marketplaces, one of the biggest disappointments of the dotcom era, are now confidently pulling in new members. But there are still huge potential stumbling blocks, most notably standards and security.

The return of e-business owes much to UK public sector investment. But, as Computing has reported, there is a clear gap between spending and use. The country has dropped to ninth in the annual Accenture global league table of e-government readiness.

But analysis of e-business and e-government tends to concentrate on practical problems, rather than question the whole idea of internet trading.

We may not yet be able to talk about a revival, but it is fair to suggest that the end of the much-vaunted 'dotcom backlash' is in sight. There is unanimity among successful businesses about the change: it's now just back-to-basics business.

"It's been a very quiet revolution," said Steve Russell, manager at BT Transact, an electronic B2B exchange, linking the likes of Cap Gemini and Dairy Crest to suppliers.

"It might be less interesting than before, but really it's just about network economics. The return on investment comes simply from getting more and more suppliers on your system."

Brass tack statistics, such as a 69 per cent reduction in the time spent on order discrepancies, are what really motivates the business to invest.

The same message comes from the Worldwide Retail Exchange (WRE), a huge global B2B marketplace supported by retailers such as Tesco and Safeway.

The hype was enormous, and chief marketing officer Nick Parnaby admits that the business spent longer than he could wish in what analyst Gartner calls the "trough of disillusionment".

The WRE is now back on solid ground, with realistic business concerns that seem light years away from the hype of its 2000 launch. "The big thing for us has been standards," said Parnaby.

Open needs a common language. New technologies such as Radio Frequency ID tags challenge the status quo, and retailers are always expanding into new areas.

"But the reality is that everyone just wants to keep it simple," said Parnaby. Simple standards, simple interfaces and simple business.

Even the competition lacks the knockabout fun of the dotcom era. The WRE announced last week that it was linking Global Data Synchronisation Solutions with one-time deadly rival Transora.

And these days, online government initiatives are less excitable and more focused. One of the biggest hypes in recent years has been electronic voting, which many politicians believed would reinvigorate our democratic system.

Now the emphasis is on steady progress with extra attention to results. The government needs to establish a clear roadmap for development if electronic voting is to get beyond the pilot stage, according to the Electoral Commission.

The last round of e-voting trials ran in 17 boroughs in last May's local council elections, giving 1.4 million people the opportunity to cast their vote without going to a polling station.

In the trial areas, the electorate was able to use the internet, interactive television and text messages to submit their vote.

But the Electoral Commission's evaluation of the pilot stated that the UK is "some way from the prospect of an e-enabled general election".

And the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, responsible for the initiative, claimed that it is committed to pursuing the plan but will not be running further pilots in this summer's council elections because it felt the timing was too tight.

The reality is that everything has to be a means to an end. The internet has grown up.

CASE STUDY: Self-assessment tax returns

More than 40,000 self-assessment tax returns have already been received online this year, according to the Inland Revenue.

And last year's usage for the department's 'Filing by Internet' service, launched in June 2000, more than doubled compared with the year before.

In 2002, the service was briefly suspended because security glitches allowed users to see other taxpayers' details. But the publicity attracted by the problems ultimately created a huge upsurge in usage.

In the first year of operation, about 39,000 tax returns were filed online. By last year this had risen dramatically to about 700,000.

"When this is combined with the returns from the Electronic Lodgment Service for agents it means that over 1.1 million self-assessment returns were submitted via the internet," said a spokesman for the Revenue. "This represents more than 11 per cent of the record 9.47 million returns issued."

People using the system are able to fill in their details and have the system automatically calculate the amount of tax owed or due for refund.

The bill can then be paid online using certain debit cards and Girobank's BillPay system. In the 2002-3 tax year, 84,000 people paid their tax bill online, to the tune of nearly £83m.

The self-assessment service also allows for a range of extra functions, including the ability to view and change address and contact details, ask confidential questions and receive answers in a secure mail box, and view the latest copy of a statement of account.

"E-business is the way of the future and the Inland Revenue is determined to remain at the forefront of any developments that will improve customer service in this area," said the spokesman.

"Inland Revenue now offers online services for pay-as-you-earn, corporation tax, tax credits, stamp taxes and child benefit."

BT Transact

Worldwide Retail Exchange

Electoral Commission

Inland Revenue