#think: web denial, the new fashion?

This is the english version of the article published in yesterday's 'stratégies'.

Last week,the article published in your magazine: 'let's create a grand prix for crap web', painted a picture which greatly... how should I say... it didn't quite depress me, I'll get over it, but it did sadden me greatly.
Why? Because cynical views of the web hide something a lot more dangerous: the coming out of a new fashion:

'web denial'.

At first sight, nothing too bad. It is even quite courageous to dare criticize the web today. But you can see more and more reactions against the so called 'web gurus'. So much so that it's become fashionable to take direct hits at the whole thing. Jacques Seguela called the web on main tv last week: "the biggest load of crap ever invented by mankind"...

It's almost like hitting a revenge button. Yes a lot of poeple did not get their predictions right. Yes second life is close to dead, yes technology is hard to predict, yes the web is often the dustbin for poor quality communication campaigns, and wannabe revolutions.
But nothing really strange there... It is exactly like in real life. Are our TVs, radios and magazines full of unbelievably good programs? Of fabulous advertising? How many innovating products/brands/companies have to fail before one actually succeeds?

Well it's exactly the same for the web, and why wouldn't it be?
However.
However it is our duty to be the first trialists. To test, learn and see how these new tools can be mastered.To see why they (would) work, and how. To help guide our clients that often find difficult to see through this new jungle.
Because the alternative is totally unacceptable: going back to the old use of the web, the trio desccribed in the article of 'banners, newsletter, landing page'. Alternatives unacceptable not because they are now 'old' but because their efficiency is dropping fast, and will drop even faster in the future as they are fast becoming overused.

So rather than reassure yourself by looking down on false future predictions, why not also look at digtial products that were predicted to fail, and that in fact did the complete reverse. Small little things... like facebook, twitter, blogs, bbm, and before them sms.

Yes we have a short memory. It's a vice as much as it is a vertu. Because we would go very far by saying 'it did not work before'.

Posted via email from #think: Freddie's posterous