Facebook Login Fiasco Demonstrates Challenge in Competing with Google
This story reminds me of an experience from my past. I had a meeting with a small business owner who wanted to develop a web site for his business. In our discussion he asked what kind of work I had done in the past and I told him I could show him online. So, he opened Internet Explorer. Google was his home page. This isn't really shocking. Google is tremendously useful. I use it every day, even though my home page is My Yahoo. Google does many, MANY things you didn't even know could be done. I had no issue with Google being his home page. However, what happened next surprised me.
I gave him the URL of one of my web sites. He typed it in and off we went. BUT... he didn't type it into the address bar. He typed it into the GOOGLE SEARCH BAR. Up popped a list of search results and my web site was listed first. He clicked on that link and my page pulled up. I couldn't believe that he didn't know how to use the internet. But, I wrote it off to his age and overall lack of technical familiarity.
I'm not usually standing over someone's shoulder when they use the internet, so I had no idea that this was not just some isolated instance. No, according to the above article, many people believe that this is how the World Wide Web works; that first you go to Google, you search for the web site, and you click the link. It's as if people think the internet is the googlenet.
So, let me provide here a simple guide to using the World Wide Web, both how it was intended to be used, and most efficiently.
The internet is bigger than the World Wide Web. It is actually a global network of millions of computers sharing all sorts of data all the time. Some of that data is the World Wide Web that you experience through your web browser (ie Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc.).
Your web browser allows you to access content on the web. I don't use Internet Explorer, and I suggest that you don't either, but if you want to, go right ahead. Your browser will have a "home page" that opens by default when you start it up. This page can be ANY PAGE YOU WANT. If you want your web-based email to be the first thing you check, you can make that your home page. If you frequently search for recipes online, you can make www.foodnetwork.com or www.allrecipes.com your home page. I hope you see where this is going. Even Google is perfectly acceptable.
To view a site other than your home page, you do one of two things. 1) If the next thing you want to see is a link on the page, just click it. You should be used to doing this already. 2) If you want to see some other web site, like maybe something you just saw on TV, JUST TYPE THE ADDRESS IN THE ADDRESS BAR AT THE TOP OF THE BROWSER WINDOW. You know, at the top where you see the "File Edit View Favorites Tools Help" menu. There you will find the word "Address" with a long box next to it that has the address of the page you are currently viewing. If you are having a hard time picturing this, it's the box with the long string of letters beginning with "http://". Delete those and type in the address of the site you want. If you want to go to www.facebook.com, click inside the box and type www.facebook.com. Hit enter on your keyboard, or click the -> arrow or the button that says "Go" or whatever is at the end of that box. Poof! Facebook comes up.
If you know the web site you are looking for DO NOT OPEN GOOGLE, DO NOT ENTER IT INTO THE GOOGLE SEARCH BAR, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200! Just enter it in the address bar at the top of the browser window.
Google is not the front door of the internet. Google is just a web site like any other. Think of it as a phone book. If you want to call Pizza Hut and you already know the phone number, you don't go looking for it in the yellow pages. You pick up the phone and dial the number. Google is the yellow pages. The address of the site (its URL) is the phone number. If you know the URL, just type it in the address bar and go. Going to Google every time is a waste of time for you, for Google, for everyone else that uses the internet. And it drives me batty! If you don't know where to find what you are looking for, that is when you open Google and search for it.
I'm sure all of you know all this already. But I just had to get it out of my system. Whew!
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