I have been fishing around trying to decide what is real news in the Internet space these days, and I honestly have been a little bored lately. So, I wondered if I was experiencing some form of burn-out surrounding the Internet. I quickly decided I hadn’t, and realized that we are caught in a bit of a weird space in the business of the Internet. That’s why I am feeling a little out of sorts.
This is post #133 of my time here at Biznology and I’m suddenly realizing that there is only so much to talk about. Even though there are actually just a few areas to discuss, the Internet industry has this interesting habit of slicing and dicing things like search marketing into very thin pieces. We do this to make “news.” Then, we as an industry have this quirk of thinking we can predict the future. The future of how the Internet will be used and the future of what products will be created to use it like predicted. We call this news as well.
There’s a problem with this, though. You see, the Internet as a whole is starting to feel like a startup that has received a bunch of VC cash and the bosses have cashed out and left for greener pastures. Those left behind are tasked with the hard work of actually implementing the ideas that attracted the cash in the first place. The founder who cashed out, however, doesn’t have to stick around, and probably could care less if the project sinks or swims because he already got paid.
Image via Wikipedia
Right now, we have more options for using the Internet for business than at any time in the commercial Internet’s short history. The options are many but the delivery is where the trouble is. We talk a lot, but are we truly delivering?
We talk and write a lot in the Internet space. Now, however, it’s time to do. It’s just recently that I slowed down enough to see just how little progress has been made in SEO over the past five years. There have been changes but the recommendations remain the same. Content, basic on-page optimization, and links. It’s not really any different today than it has been since, well, forever.
Sure, now local is emphasized, but is it because it never existed before we write about it so much? No, not at all. Local has always been important, but the real delivery around it didn’t start to take place until the past few years. We write about it and make it seem fresh but the reality is that we just started to really pay attention to it more. It’s always been important.
But what about mobile? That’s new, right? What about location-based services? Those are new kids on the block, correct? Yes and no. They are new but they are the things that often take our eyes off the real game of just playing catch up with everything the Internet has to offer right now today.
I will be perfectly honest with you and say that I am not sure what my point is here. Maybe that’s the point. We are always looking for something new and different in the Internet era but we’re just like the kid with the new toy at Christmas. We get fired up about the newness of the next shiny object, we experiment with it then we toss it aside without ever truly seeing all that it can do for us.
I think that’s what I am getting from my 133rd post for Biznology—the realization that there is a lot that I have left on the table in pursuit of the next shiny object. As a result, I feel like I just had a huge meal at a Chinese restaurant that left me hungry a half hour later. Internet chow mein, if you will.
I hope I look back at this post and realize that I was just in an Internet desert of sorts and that I found the Internet’s Promised Land sooner than later. I think I will. I just hope it’s before Post #134.
