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AOL Browser BETA - A Major Contender?
To me, AOL Browser .68 Beta is what a browser should be. Relatively lightweight, easy to install, and most of all, it works how I want it to. I've been using for one day, and I'm already converted. Based on Internet Explorer 6 technology, the new...
How to make good Elearning succeed in your Organization
1.What will good ELearning do for your Organization? According to a study by the IDC, worldwide spending on ELearning will surpass $23 billion by the end of 2004. However, with the current economic climate, companies are less inclined to spend...
Phishing: An Interesting Twist On A Common Scam
You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included. Original URL (The Web version of the article) ------------ href="http://www.defendingthenet.com/newsletters/Phishing-A...
Spam Filters & Blockers: The solution to unsolicited email?
Spam is a term that, for the vast majority of us, has a very negative connotation. How could it be different when the average Internet user gets over 50 pieces of junk email per day? Moreover, research indicates that by 2006 the average internet...
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A Curmudgeonly View on AOL
Internetworld Spring 2002 in Los Angeles is Sponsored by AOL, a company that markets it's service with the slogan, "It's so easy! No wonder it's number one!" One wonders what that company would get out of the crowd that is clearly not interested in the easy stuff. These are all high tech geeks who work with more odd acronyms than any one person needs to know. The companies represented by the drones who toil away inside them see software solutions as a gateway to network infra- structure to implement cross enterprise knowledge management within the structure of their data center while tying current applications through XML data feeds in the backend.
But AOL is for my mom and your grandmother. People who both need to be told, "You've got mail!" before they'll check it. But here is AOL anyway, with a eighteen foot high bulging balloon that looks like a computer monitor bouncing around in front of the convention center doors like a giant Billy- Bounce kiddy-diversion found at a state fair. Maybe they believe that busy mommies will be driving by on busy Pico and Figueroa Streets with a carful of kiddies that will see their Billy-Bounce out front of the convention center. Or it's possible that those who work with ECRM applications during the day, go home to AOL connections each evening.
I suppose it's possible that call center and salesforce automation software implementation might drive one to prefer AOL. Managers struggle every day to get their employees to USE that multi-million dollar eCRM software application in their work until they can no longer stand the appearance of that customized GUI at which they stare endlessly. So, it's home to AOL! Naaaahhhhh!
Where is the mainstream at internet shows? Where's that guy from the Circuit City commercial who runs from the house in his slippers and bathrobe yelling excitedly, "BROADBAAAAAAND!" His family stares in disbelief at his excited plans for high speed internet? Where is that likeable guy who searches the web using his default browser, set with default settings, viewing things that can't be faulted when his wife asks him, "I thought you were surfing the web?" He responds, dumb- founded with, "I finished it." (a rather implausible ad for DSL).
It sometimes seems that the internet is made exclusively for enterprise-level IT drones who say to their co-Dilbert, "Six million dollars worth of pure strategic thinking . . . but given our current technology, is it implementable?, No?"
Unless you think the web is for mommies who don't know if they have email until their computer tells them, "You've got mail!," you've got to believe that there are worthwhile tools for the rest of us availalble. The huge middle ground is not made up of those IT geeks OR the busy mommy. It is made up of a vast sea of entrepreneurs, consultants, writers, freelancers,
professionals running online businesses and other small business people who use the web extensively. Nobody from venture capital funded start-ups purposely seeks out that hard to reach audience unless they can do it through office superstores or giant warehouse outlets.
Are there any folks out there who just have a middle level interest, run a small business online and don't sound like they are spelling everything when discussing business applications? CRM, ROI, ERP, J2EE , XML and even SOAP are on the tongues of corporate suits. Are the rest of us lost and wandering aimlessly through InternetWorld, sponsored by AOL and wondering what those letters are for?
Is the internet made up of either web services of interest only to corporate CTO's OR pointless chatter from little prepubescent girls to their best friend via AOL Instant Messenger?
The mainstream is missing here. That is clearly part of the odd atmosphere at web conferences as vendors hawk their wares from fancy show booths . . . and to whom? To the enterprise, stupid! (Someone should tell AOL that there were no prepubescent girls attending this show.)
Soon even those using AOL will be able to accomplish all this stuff without their browser telling them, "You've got mail!" Maybe they'll want a colorful graphic to click on, but AOL users may not have to be told, "Here's your latest bank statement!" or "You've got to pay your insurance premium!" or "It's time for Spot to get his rabies shots!"
AOL users understand that the world is available online, even if that knowledge comes through their sign-on screen and clicking on the little blue "Yes" button rather than simply visiting those web sites themselves to take care of business or look up things directly. I think it may be the immediacy that works best for AOL, that you know you have an email because AOL 7.0 tells you that you do. The immediacy of AOL instant messenger (dubbed AIM) is what makes that service so compelling for their users.
To AOL users that may take offense at my comments, I must first ask them if they know that most of the rest of the world uses a local cable company or independent service provider to access the web through something called a browser (software) and not through the "New! AOL version 7.0" junkmail CD they receive weekly in their mailbox.
Oh, and they'll never make a movie around XML or EDI, even if they could get Meg Ryan to star in it. Maybe if they could make the movie seats CRM compliant. Naaahhh. "You've got user analytics data!" Wouldn't work.
About the Author
Mike Valentine operates WebSite101 for Online Entrepreneurs and moderates the I-Privacy discussion list where he insists that "Protecting Privacy is Good For Business" http://adventive.com/lists/iprivacy/summary.html Subscribe: mailto:i-privacy-join-request@list.adventive.com
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