How do you write the date on the net ( or letters for that matter ) ?

I’m asking this because it can get very confusing when different countries seem to have different ways of doing this. For instance if its the 3rd of February I would write the date down as 3/2/2010, whereas people in the States would write ⅔/2010. It gets even more confusing when sites outside the States are also adopting the latter method. Most British sites are still putting the day before the month. Will this cause confusion if someone is referencing in the future? Did the US always put the month first?
If my memory serves me correctly this has been a quite recent change? ( I mean over the last few years ).