NewsLine Column: Lost in Cyber-Space
Is the Information Super Highway as super as we once supposed? Or are we in need of some signposting? Ian Foulds, senior advertising planner at News International, sees a long road ahead.
The internet – trumpeted since birth, can it do nothing wrong? For many it can, and quite often does.
Quickly penned “The Information Super Highway” the World Wide Web has become a part of the daily lives of billions of people across the globe. People are spending more and more time getting online and heading on down that road; searching, planning, buying and communicating across this new medium. It has shaken up the old establishment and made a brave new world.
These facts have been trumpeted by e-evangelists, but what is often left out is the flip side of this new order; the dark side as it were. For every smoothly negotiated journey along the Super Highway there is the sound of manic mouse clicking and aborted trips.
Can the internet be that difficult to use? Yes, it appears so. New research into Britain’s elite and their job-hunting habits has discovered that a large number of surfers are getting lost online.
It’s as if the explosion of choice has only served to confuse the consumer. News International found that when Britain’s elite were asked what sources they used for job searching, “the internet” was fired off almost as automatically as the response to “how are you?”
Closer analysis revealed that although 6 in 10 job seekers will make use of the internet as a resource when looking for their next job, only a quarter stated that they’ll go to specific recruitment/employer sites – the majority seem to be fumbling in the dark.
How can this be? At the risk of over extending a metaphor, it could well be due to a lack of signposts to guide the user. It would appear that brand strength remains the key – something leading media could teach the new order a thing or two about.
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