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What
ever happened to Friendly’s Ice Cream, the tried and true neighborhood
ice cream parlor? We used to have a lot more of those sit-down ice
cream shops where you had to wait for half an hour to get your fix.
Customers were never disappointed with their ice cream. It was an
atmosphere where you couldn’t help but feel welcome and appreciated.
When you went to Friendly’s, it was... friendly! That was all before
the Internet generation (formerly known as the microwave generation).
Trouble is, people aren’t willing to wait for half an hour for something
they can get in 2.2 seconds at the local grocery store. Pints of Ben
& Jerry’s, Haagen Daaz, Edy’s (you name your vice) are available
in a jiffy. Reading the funky labels on the back of your "Cherry
Garcia" is a close second to reading those color-your-own placemats
at Friendly’s. Although you’ll miss out on the communal atmosphere
with Aunt Ruth nudging you to sit up straight. You’ll certainly miss
the fresh maraschino cherry on top. I suppose you can always buy your
own jar of formaldehyde-soaked cherries at that same Speedy Mart.
But it’s just not the same. So what does Friendly’s have to do with
the web? When you spend time at Friendly’s, you surround yourself
with essential humanity and a community of ice cream. And you actually
spend time - rather than race past it.
WATERED DOWN PUNCH
The Internet has been rushing past us - the focus has been on speed.
Faster processors, fatter pipelines, more bandwidth, increased network
speed. Despite all of these "advancements", however, the
usability of the web still has a long way to go. We still aren’t
achieving our users’ goal to connect to the most relevant information.
We’ve spent countless cycles improving the speed of the web, but
are actually slowing down the performance of sites by packing in
too much watered down punch: too much irrelevant information.
THE ORIGINAL VISION IS BLURRED
Tim Berners-Lee, original inventor of the Web and chair at the MIT
Laboratory for Computer Science asserts, "The vision I have
for the Web is about anything being potentially connected with anything."
Lately, however, the web has been more about marketing and promotions
and FREE t-shirts, palm pilots, office chairs, etc. Where’s the
discovery? Trying to do too much at once, we overpower pages with
graphics intended to increase interactivity. Our goal to encourage
user stickiness through more graphics, more flash, more plug-ins
(and typically less content) is actually defeating the point of
the web. The overwhelming amounts of graphics and painstakingly
long load times on most sites today causes disarray and disconnect.
If users aren’t going to have the patience to wait, how can they
connect to you and your products. One third of online shoppers waiting
for web pages to down-load will "bailout" after only eight
seconds. We’re just not connecting.
BREAK THE RULES - THEN REINVENT
The rules are changing by the minute - and the search engines are
catching on. Search engine crawlers follow different algorithms
as specified by their programmers to determine which pages rank
highest in a search. For example, if the word extranet is also frequently
combined with business-to-business, the search engines will plug
that into their algorithm too. The search engines operate pseudo-intellectually.
Not quite artificial intelligence -- more like "Velveeta Intelligence".
The internet is processed intelligence.
A year ago, there were organizations dedicated to "tricking"
the search engines to rank pages higher. These "site ghosting"
organizations were able to determine from these complex algorithms
the necessary keywords, metatags, file size, content length, and
coding parameters required to boost rankings. By creating ghost
sites, organizations such as Greenflash Systems would increase the
search engine rankings by creating a text centric site that contained
the appropriate algorithms for each of the 15 odd search engines.
That’s until the search engines caught on. The humans powering the
engines consider this trickery a violation of integrity. Fads never
last though. Classics will remain essential, no matter how volatile
the industry becomes, good business is good business.
ARE YOU ONE OF THE POPULAR KIDS ON THE BLOCK?
The recent trend of link popularity brings us back to the essential
-- the sites that are the most usable are now ranking higher in
popularity on search sites such as snap.com. If your users spend
only seconds on your site instead of minutes, I guarantee your rankings
are going down. The metrics will tell the story. But the web is
viral. Link-happy naysayers will guarantee to spread the negative
word.
In my days working at Disney, my top priority was to exceed customer
expectations. Our quest as cast members was to ensure that every
interaction resulted in positive word of mouth. With the internet,
its all about positive word of *&^%... : ) But look out, if
someone adds you to their flame list, word travels fast. There are
even sites dedicated to web sites that suck. Get on that list, and
you are guaranteed to be black listed from any industry awards or
top rankings.
 BUT
I WANT TO SURF IN MY BATHROBE
In our quest to continuously improve the speed and bandwidth of
the Internet, we’ve omitted the most important aspect of the web:
usability. It seems like a constant struggle of catch-up for the
everyday web user. I don’t know about you, but my neighborhood doesn’t
have DSL yet. I do a lot of my research on the week-ends when I
don’t have to ward off interruptions from countless meetings, phone
calls and an influx of e-mails. Although I can go to the local cyber
cafe and spend $10 for high speed access, its not the same as being
able to log in from home in my bathrobe with a steamy cup of Java
brewed fresh from the pot.
So
what’s the answer? Evolution - the web is organic - as user preferences
change, evolve with them. That’s the beauty of the dynamic and personalized
applications that are available. Ensuring that the most relevant
information is presented to the user has sparked many sites to create
My Yahoo-like sites that allow users to specify their own personal
page with relevant information according to their jobs/interests/etc.
Beyond personalization though is still that fundamental need to
get the information communicated right ... right away. Ask your
customer what they seek. Brochureware for your web site is not going
to transform a casual surfer into a buyer. Present beneficial content
that will allow users to do their jobs better and inevitably lead
them closer to buying your product.
TAKE A BREATHER
It’s time for the Internet to slow down for a breather. Reflect
on what works. Contributing to the same meaningless garble of e-this
and e-that isn’t providing consumers with substance. Focus on the
essentials. Simplify the design and information architecture so
web site users find what they are looking for in 5 seconds or less.
And when they find it, present other treasures that will tempt them
to return again later. In web marketing, our goal is not only to
get the customers to our site, it’s to keep them there and keep
’em coming back for more. Quick load time, relevant information,
fresh perspective, and good usability will bring ’em back and may
even spark them to share the link with their influential friends.
EVOLVE TO A FRIENDLY MEDIUM
I hope the link popularity movement catches on so we can experience
a more graceful Internet with purpose, power and calm. Even though
I spend more time on the web each day than most users do each week,
I still haven’t found my favorite site. A few sites come close such
as amazon.com and ibm.com, but there is always some human element
missing from the sites. There is always a distance between myself
and the culture, corporation, information and community. So until
I can shake hands with the web, negotiate with the site, tell a
corny joke that inspire chuckles, hear about the kid’s soccer game
or the lousy round of golf just played, we have a long way to go
until the web evolves into a "Friendly" medium.
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