Some people...
So Brent brought in an article this morning by Joshua Greenbaum titled "Why I HATE Web 2.0" which I read voraciously because I'm not a big fan of the term, because it's been so marketing-weenied to death that it has no meaning.However, this wasn't the point of the article. The point of the article was that, effectively, Mr. Greenbaum doesn't like advertising and sales being a part of websites and services. Basically his read on the entirety of Web 2.0 is the transition of, in his words, "...what are becoming increasingly essential daily activities for business and personal use can only be transacted within the context of more advertising and marketing."
Well, sorry Comrade, but the reason these things are (and have been) "more advertising and marketing" laden is Average Man not wanting to pay, with currency, for anything online. The fact that PornoTube.com shot up Alexa so quickly is even more proof of this (and should be sounding off alarm bells for every pornographer in the world, but I digress...) -- and precisely why attention data has so much value these days, for most folks it's the only easy/quick way to monetize a really cool (and usually not cheap) product.
He goes on to point out that he'd be willing to pay for a non-commercial, non-attention data gathering Web 2.0! That's great! Convince the other 99% of the browsing population to agree with you, and we'll have ourselves a deal. Mainstream people, the ones making people money, will not pay for content, or "basic" services, it's simply a matter of fact. They think that paying their bandwidth bill should cover the whole internet experience. Clearly that's not the case, but perception is reality. This backlash against "Attention Misuse" is really starting to bother me, because -- and this may shock some folks -- NOTHING IS FREE (dollar free, that is)
That being said, ads piss me off too. Which is why my non-dumb brain can ignore them most of the time. Unless it's something I really need or really grabs my interest. Then you know what happens, Mr Greenbaum?
I buy their stuff. That free content just found me something I needed to buy. That is very Web 2.0, says I.
posted by webba @ 2:15 PM
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