The web is changing the way we live and interact, blah blah blah. The future is now, and holy *&$# it is awesome.
FUTURE FTW!
The web really is changing and innovating at a breakneck pace, and often times it evolves faster than the cautious consumer is willing to change their habits. Below are a few examples of big changes to popular Web Services that were first hated, then accepted as the norm, and even loved!
1. Facebook Newsfeed
When Facebook first previewed its new layout, including a revolutionary new “News Feed” that would alert you to changes and updates made by each of your friends, all in one place, it was HATED.
Hundreds of thousands of facebook “traditionalists” showed their disdain by creating and joining “WTF I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK”, and “GET RID OF TEH STALKER-FEED” groups in Facebook. But Facebook persisted, and now everything on Facebook revolves around this feature, and Facebook certainly hasn’t lost any of its appeal.
Today, the feature has sparked a new industry, and has become so ingrained in youth culture that people have used it as a form of storytelling. “Social Media Aggregators” such as Friendfeed, have made a business out of creating “News Feeds” for users activities across multiple sites.
People have even recreated the Genesis Story as a Facebook News Feed.
2. Gmail Targeted Advertising
Just the idea of an email client from the same wunder-company that indexed the web was enough to get most geeks excited. But, when word got out that Google would be “reading our emails” and serving us targeted ads based on what they say, privacy advocates and regular users alike were up in arms. Most of the anger came out of ignorance, as non-tech savvy people found it hard to understand that computer programs would be scanning the emails, and humans would never see it. But nevertheless, it generated a great deal of press and debate, and certainly kept concerned users away.
But after the market had time to get comfortable with this new HAL-9000 advertising system, its unobtrusive display, frequent usefullness, and rare humor made it a welcome alternative to other email systems giant blinking banner ads. Gmail places targeted text ads that are often directly useful to a users immediate needs. (example below)
Also, when you purchase an item online, and the retailer might include a UPS tracking number. Voila! A link to the UPS page tracking your package shows up in the sidebar!
On the humor side, this author has a funny list of Ads that Gmail served over a year in his life.
3. Google Search-Wiki
Google recently made a famously rare change to its search results by adding “all these #$(*@ing buttons” as some disgruntled users have described it.
These #$%*ing buttons allow users to move search results around, comment on results, and even add and remove search results from a page. The changes users make are only shown when they are logged in, and they arent applied to other peoples results, but comments on results are shown publicly.
So far comments are mostly just test comments and spam, or confused Iranians, as the SearchWiki for Yahoo Mail below illustrates:
Many people are wondering: What is the point?
Good question my friend, but to that, I answer: Be Patient, let it grow on you, see what happens. This has the potential to yet again change the way we use the web.
