Most regular readers of this column will know two things about me.
Firstly, I have the enthusiasm of a recent convert as far as most things on the internet are concerned. And secondly, I am a ‘dyed in the wool’ baby boomer with all the baggage that usually entails.
Given this lens I would like to think that my views fall somewhere in between many of my Luddite contemporaries who do not wish to become digitally connected even in the most basic sense (by that I mean no modem connection, and I’m talking dial up here).
And, at the other extreme of the spectrum, the younger generations, also including here fellow students studying computer science at uni or members of the local computer society chapter.
I imagine most of the population would be part of the latter group and even some of the so-called Luddites are finally being enticed on board the digital express by Skype and now have regular video sessions with children and grandchildren living on the other side of the world.
I freely admit my working life these days is primarily online but there are still lots of things I hate with a passion about the internet and local search in particular:
♦ Email Spam – No.1 on everyone’s list of pet hates
♦ Anti-virus software – the sooner Microsoft fixes the mess its OS created the better – and free too
♦ PCs – why can’t the world be one big Apple?
♦ Cookies – I would hate to think what Google has on its servers about my search behaviour – not talking porn here
♦ Old websites – why can’t the search engines get rid of all those dead links – surely they’re smart enough to dream up an algorithm to do that
♦ My personal pet hate – high ranking national or international directories that dominate local search with no decent content
♦ Google maps on local search – they sit right on top of the real listings - and who’s heard of a local who needs a map to find their way around where they live?
♦ Nearly three quarters of all search is local so why do all the search engines still default to the world wide web? You have to click on the radio button (below the search box) every time to change setting before searching
♦ Why do search engines sometimes provide heaps of natural listings that clearly are not relevant but at the same time the Sponsored Listings (adverts) are always targeted accurately?
♦ Bad behaviours – there’s lots of it from bad spelling to rude comments in blogs and forums right through to offensive videos getting hosted on big portals such as YouTube without being checked first
♦ Illegal activities – the technology is a vehicle for all types of fraudulent actions and immoral activities – however it reflects the offline or real world. There’s nothing I know that happens online which doesn’t already happen in the real world
♦ Australia’s ‘Claytons’ broadband – say no more – the sooner the word buffer leaves our vocabulary the better
♦ Time wasters – I’m going to go right out on a limb here and predict Twitter will fall off its Web 2.0 perch in the next 12 months and tweet off to social network heaven (I have been wrong before)
♦ Local search (my pet hobby – as you can see from the list) will emerge from the shadows and become the next big thing online – finally getting rid of irrelevant Top10 search results and delivering what Google promised and usually delivers on the world wide web
Historians will no doubt record in the years ahead that the internet was the defining technology of the 21st century so whether we as individuals like it or not the reality is we all have to move out of our comfort zones, cast off our outdated pre-conceptions of how things should be, and embrace the web warts and all.
Who said: “can’t live with them … and can’t live without them either? Yeah, I know they were talking about our better halves, not the internet, and it was likely some MCP firmly stuck in a time warp … but you get the idea!
Most regular readers of this column will know two things about me.
Firstly, I have the enthusiasm of a recent convert as far as most things on the internet are concerned. And secondly, I am a ‘dyed in the wool’ baby boomer with all the baggage that usually entails.
Given this lens I would like to think that my views fall somewhere in between many of my Luddite contemporaries who do not wish to become digitally connected even in the most basic sense (by that I mean no modem connection, and I’m talking dial up here).
And, at the other extreme of the spectrum, the younger generations, also including here fellow students studying computer science at uni or members of the local computer society chapter.
I imagine most of the population would be part of the latter group and even some of the so-called Luddites are finally being enticed on board the digital express by Skype and now have regular video sessions with children and grandchildren living on the other side of the world.
I freely admit my working life these days is primarily online but there are still lots of things I hate with a passion about the internet and local search in particular:
♦ Email Spam – No.1 on everyone’s list of pet hates
♦ Anti-virus software – the sooner Microsoft fixes the mess its OS created the better – and free too
♦ PCs – why can’t the world be one big Apple?
♦ Cookies – I would hate to think what Google has on its servers about my search behaviour – not talking porn here
♦ Old websites – why can’t the search engines get rid of all those dead links – surely they’re smart enough to dream up an algorithm to do that
♦ My personal pet hate – high ranking national or international directories that dominate local search with no decent content
♦ Google maps on local search – they sit right on top of the real listings - and who’s heard of a local who needs a map to find their way around where they live?
♦ Nearly three quarters of all search is local so why do all the search engines still default to the world wide web? You have to click on the radio button (below the search box) every time to change setting before searching
♦ Why do search engines sometimes provide heaps of natural listings that clearly are not relevant but at the same time the Sponsored Listings (adverts) are always targeted accurately?
♦ Bad behaviours – there’s lots of it from bad spelling to rude comments in blogs and forums right through to offensive videos getting hosted on big portals such as YouTube without being checked first
♦ Illegal activities – the technology is a vehicle for all types of fraudulent actions and immoral activities – however it reflects the offline or real world. There’s nothing I know that happens online which doesn’t already happen in the real world
♦ Australia’s ‘Claytons’ broadband – say no more – the sooner the word buffer leaves our vocabulary the better
♦ Time wasters – I’m going to go right out on a limb here and predict Twitter will fall off its Web 2.0 perch in the next 12 months and tweet off to social network heaven (I have been wrong before)
♦ Local search (my pet hobby – as you can see from the list) will emerge from the shadows and become the next big thing online – finally getting rid of irrelevant Top10 search results and delivering what Google promised and usually delivers on the world wide web
Historians will no doubt record in the years ahead that the internet was the defining technology of the 21st century so whether we as individuals like it or not the reality is we all have to move out of our comfort zones, cast off our outdated pre-conceptions of how things should be, and embrace the web warts and all.
Who said: “can’t live with them … and can’t live without them either? Yeah, I know they were talking about our better halves, not the internet, and it was likely some MCP firmly stuck in a time warp … but you get the idea! | 
