Too much content,
too many "neat" and "cool" ideas, not enough focus. As someone who suffers from
ADD, I can honestly tell you the Internet needs a heavy dose of Ritalin. For
example, how many news sites do you really need for you to get the daily news?
How many people are on the Internet? And how many people can you split between
the top 10 portals? Disney and NBC have been trying to keep Go.com "go-ing"
with all the gimmicks they can muster. Guess what, nobody cares? This is because
we have become immune to the gimmicks and are now becoming hyper-focused. We
have become instant-information junkies. We turn to the computer for instant
communication and to look for specific information. We've stopped browsing,
and in fact I propose we change the name of the browser. In fact I find the
term "browsing" rather degrading and insulting. I don't browse, I am too busy
for browsing. I'm not some slacker sitting around just lolly-gagging on the
Internet. When my boss asks me what I am doing, I don't want to tell him, "Oh
you know, yawn, just browsing." I want to fire back with something like "I'm
focusing my info-laser to locate some new buzzwords for tomorrow's Venture Capital
meeting." Browsing is what you do each Sunday in your Jammies while flipping
over the classifieds.
Our Internet habits
have become sophisticated and highly developed. We know where to look and how
to get what we want. Each of us has reliable sources for information and content
that we always go back to. I have no more than 5 sites I visit each day (like
this one). I could care less about who is publishing their life story and personal
diary on-line.
We can now look
back and see what worked and what didn't. We can look into underdeveloped tech
sectors and start emphasizing their growth. I believe we are in better shape
now than before the big Internet boom. Hopefully we've cleared out some of the
morons looking to get rich off their awful PowerPoint slides full of "concepts"
and "paradigm shifts" and we can get back to the business of doing business.
Instead of jumping on every new thing and anticipating what consumers want,
we can develop what they really need.
S.T.R.E.P.: A Thousand Pixels of Light >>