The Great Web Advertising Debate

 What happened to the World Wide Web?

The answer is at the end of the article........

One of the most common debates around is over web advertising.

Some sites that you visit have so many animated banners that it looks like a shooting gallery! Others will throw up 20 windows of ads when you try to exit the site. I call these tactics "scumvertising". I know of a number of people who have stopped using the World Wide Web due to scumvertising. Some say, "The Internet should be free of advertising!"....

.... pardon? Why?

The very nature of life on this planet is dependant on advertising. A pretty big statement for me to make, so here's a simplified justification:

In the animal world, the strongest survive. The most aggressive, the most brash of the species will have the tendency to be most successful in reproduction.

In the plant world, some plants use elaborate ornamentation to assist in their reproduction. Some flower perfumes are so strong, they can be detected from miles away which attracts the necessary insects to assist in pollination.

In the world of business, those organisations who attract the most paying customers grow. The ones that hide their candle under a bushel, no matter how good the product or service is, will die. Successful businesses advertise. They use the World Wide Web to do so. They pay others to display their ads which creates income for thousands of web masters. The ads also generate competition amongst businesses. The victor in the competition gains sales. The sales generate employment. The competition leads to lower pricing and refinement of product.

OK, so the comparison is taking it to the extreme; but we seem to be living in a society of rampant consumerism, where we want everything for nothing if possible, and we want it now. If it wasn't for advertising, such as seen on the World Wide Web:

- my computer would have cost more and I probably wouldn't have it
- the commercial software on my computer - as above
- my internet connection - as above
- freeware would not exist in the levels available today
- I may not be able to afford to offer as much information as I do to others - for free

Without advertising on our sites, the World Wide Web would be elitist - available to only the rich, the government and academia. The Internet and the World Wide Web, while having it's pitfalls as any human system does, is probably the best thing to happen to our species in a very long time. And it has been on the back of advertising that the WWW has grown at the phenomal rate it has.

In stark contrast, my dreams of the perfect world dictate there would be no need for advertising as money would not exist - but in my perfect world there would also be no need for computers. I love the Internet, and computering in general, but I would trade it in any day for a world without crime, pollution and crowding. The Internet has provided me with a living, computers helped me to emerge from the gutter and to learn to exist in our society. I now not just survive, I thrive. It has allowed me to communicate my message to an audience of thousands, and to learn many valuable lessons in life from others.

The World Wide Web is slowed down by advertising you say? Yes, that's correct. But not as slow as needing to leave my premises to go to the library to carry out research. It's not anywhere as near as slow as using the postal service to deliver documents.

Internet connections are too expensive - Yes, there is still more room for improvement. But it's not as expensive as calling Interstate or International via the telephone to get technical information for products; and at least you can print out your results straight off the screen. Connectivity equipment, telecommunications services and Internet access has dropped incredibly in price over the last 5 years. How have these price drops occurred? As a direct result of advertising. Think about it based on the model I mentioned earlier.

There's too much clutter on the 'Net and it's hard to find anything - I agree totally. I believe we will see the 'Net cleaning up in the years to come - not through government intervention, but through market forces. In the meantime, think about this - when you first drove a car, did you know how to drive it? No, you had to learn. The Internet is the same deal, learn how to use it properly and it will serve you well. Like in driving, the Internet is full of obstacles. As we learn to drive, we acquire the knowledge of avoiding those obstacles to assist us in arriving at our destination safely.

Our inboxes are full of spam - Go check your letter box, or turn on the T.V. Much the same there. We have free-to-air T.V. because of advertising. Public T.V. is usually paid for from the pockets of taxpayers. Spam mail can be minimised, learn to drive "the car" and you'll find out how. There are some articles on our site regarding spam reporting.

While I condone web advertising, I do believe we need to become more responsible in how we advertise. Scumvertising is out - responsible representation is in. Consumers are not stupid, and while they may be bitten once or twice, they learn.. and they remember!

I have heard many misquote about the original intentions of the Internet. The fact is that it was a cold war initiative - a computer network designed to survive a nuclear attack. The World Wide Web which sits on top of the Internet was not designed to be a free show. In the words of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, from his book entitled "Weaving the Web":

"Buying books from Amazon.com and stocks from E-trade is not all there is to the Web. Neither is the Web some idealised space where we must remove our shoes, eat only fallen fruit, and eschew commercialism."

The intention of the Web was never (as some have romanticised and I originally thought myself) to be a free ride. The fact that I can obtain the information I need and communicate with others 24/7, partially subsidised by me viewing annoying ads, is a small price to pay for the world it has opened up.

And remember, governments don't run countries - big business does.

So, in answer to "What happened to the World Wide Web?"....

We happened...
- We are all consumers of the products of this money driven world.....
- It is up to us to change the face of the Internet..............
- But first we'll need to change the world.

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Michael Bloch
michael@tamingthebeast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content and tools, software and community.
Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development solutions.
_____________________________________________

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About the Author

Michael is an Australian Information Technologies trainer and web developer. Many other free web design, ecommerce development and Internet articles, tutorials, tools and resources are available from his award winning site; Taming the Beast.net (http://www.tamingthebeast.net)

 Michael Bloch

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