Unwired
Two things have happened to me in the last 24 hours that remind us that the internet can't do quite everything. Not yet, anyway.
Number One - Tomorrow, I'm driving to a wedding in Jacksonville, FL (yes, into the eye of Frances). I thought it would be pretty cool to have an FM transmitter for my iPod so I could listen to my tunes on the road.
I checked the web for options. I hit the MacRumors Forums to get opinions from people who had used them. Thing was, no one seemed to like any of the options. They didn't have strong enough transmitters. The sound quality was dreadful. They sucked all the battery power from your iPod. The list went on and on. I was disheartened.
Sure, you've got to account for the fact that people motivated to post about a product have probably had a bad experience with it. And Macrumors Forums are have notoriously overblown and fickle expectations. But really, if all these people are having problems, could they be any good?
Then, I asked the office "Hey, anyone used one of these things?" Justin, our webmaster, piped up, "Sure. I've got the Griffin iTrip and it works great!"
A trip to the Apple Store and $40 later, and I'm happily listening to Keane in my girlfriend's Ford Escape.
Number Two - Betty Castor won big Florida's Democratic Primary for Senate yesterday. She's been a pretty enthusiastic supporter of online campaigning, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm a fan.
But I didn't find out about Betty from a website. I attended Camp Wellstone in Fort Lauderdale in April and met a great group of ex-Deaniacs and current Bettyheads who welcomed me with open arms and treated me like one of their own. I only joined the email list because my new friend Shelby asked me to.
So...what's the point to all this? I think mostly it's just a couple of good reminders that the internet can't solve everything. That behind everyone who signs up for an email list, there's a real person who has a hundred times more interactions with other real people everyday in real life than they do over the internet.
It also demonstrates a real challenge for our business. Dozens of people on a forum told me a product was no good. I ignored them based on one recommendation from someone I know only a little because I could judge that he was telling the honest truth.
We'll probably never get to a world where you trust an anonymous blog more than your best friend. But I bet we figure out how to become buddies with our internet friends to the level that we'll be able to get an honest, uncluttered opinion from someone we've never met before. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?
