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Internet & Limitations

by Maarten Goldstein, Dec 14, 2000 7:35am PST

After all the hype surrounding the Internet for several years, can we finally say its settling down? Now that all the hasty dotcom companies are going under, broadband connections aren't the solution for full motion, full screen, video streaming and print publishers going back to print instead of online media, it looks that way.

But technology is only part of the problem. We all know that it is much harder to change human behavior than it is to change technology. And on a usability level, the Web is evolving less and less. We are refining, of course, and Web sites are getting better -- but there will be no more quantum leaps here, either. Why? Simple. By now, users have pretty much figured out what they want to use the Web for: information gathering; community services; some shopping (but by far not every kind of shopping); game playing; or a mixture of all of the above. We also have increasingly accepted the fact that for many things we do, the Web is not the best answer.
As mentioned in the article, people finally seem to know what they really can and cannot do with the Internet, and it isn't going to replace everything from the offline world. You think the dotcoms are still a threat to traditional companies, or has the Internet peaked? Discuss.


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48 Threads* | 170 Comments
  • #130
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    By: Saeger x
    Reply
    The only limitation I see is the one that already burst: The hype bubble. With each new tech you get a bunch of charlatans who want your cash. Companies just assumed they could set up lameshop.com and fleece the sheep. Turns out people are more keen to use the net for what it was designed for; and I'm glad for that fact. The net will never be the money machine that so many have hanged their hopes and dreams on... IMO, although I'm sure business and government will continue to clamp down on "copyright" issues, and will continue to "raise the bar" -- as has been done in RL -- with red tape.

    (btw... what the net needs now, or pretty soon, (besides standardization in the face of propietary business strategy) is the transparency, quality of service, and 'KaGillions' of new IP addresses that IPv6 will bring. Just one benefit is that dynamically assigned IPs can dissapear and more people can statically serve from their own domain (named Vhosts are lame :))

    (btwbtw (like a pps)... the AOL+TimeWarner merger that was just approved by the FTC -- a day after George dubbya "won" no less -- is another limitation :)
    Dec 14, 2000 10:59am PST
  • #88
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    By: davecrazy x
    Reply
    The internet right now is the best for what it was designed for in the beginning, providing information quickly and easily.

    If you want to know something about damn near anything, the internet is the place to be. The problem with all these dot.coms is that a lot of people belived the hype and thought technology would serve to make our lives easier, and it hasent, in the way they expected. If I want to buy pet food, im still gonna goto the pet food store, I dont see a need to go on the Internet. But if there is something I want to learn more about, or a fact i want to research, the 'net is the best place for it. Also porn and IRC make life worth living. OMG did I just write that.

    /me = lame
    Dec 14, 2000 9:16am PST
  • #69
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    By: Nick Burns x
    Reply
    alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica <-- A good one if your on highspeed, all movies, a ton of movies.

    A good way to find out what the good groups are is get a good reader first (dont use outlook express) Xnews is good, newspro is good, some people like agent(not me) then get a group listing and do a "get message count" of all groups. This will let you see what the more popular groups are based on the amount of posts.

    I get all my Mp3s on usenet as well as lots of other things. Tho I cant say what on the "new" Shack ;)

    alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1960s
    alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1970s
    alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1980s
    alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1990s
    alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.bootlegs

    Just a small portion of the Mp3 groups I use.


    Dec 14, 2000 8:48am PST