The web as a piece of plumbing (where’s Harry Tuttle when you need him?)

When exactly did the web — a new medium that is non-linear and interactive and combines text, (moving) image and sound — turn into a delivery channel for all the old linear, passive media — the press, TV and radio?

Is Facebook GeoCities, AOL or Friendster?

It looks like the Facebook backlash (aka “Is Facebook Friendster 2.0?” aka app spam) is gathering force.

Earlier this week Howard Rheingold, whose opinions on social networks, virtual communities and smart mobs probably carry a bit more weight than others, complained about “Facebook friending spam“, “the really awful message board” and “silly apps”, before concluding that “eventually it [i.e. Facebook] will die a slow death… They won’t even be AOL.”

Interestingly, none of the comments disagree.

Keywords? Why would anyone want to pay for words?

Text rules. Companies use text rather than images to do business. Business people sign contracts, read reports, write emails.

Text can handle all other forms of content. We routinely use text to discuss movies, TV shows and music. We rarely use images to review novels or sounds to describe a film plot.

On the web too text rules. Search engines use text rather than sound to find, index and rank websites. They examine anchor text, alt text, body text and the first few words in your headlines. If you don’t use the right keywords, search-dominant users may never find your website.

HTTP. It’s called hypertext transfer protocol for a reason.

Text — copy, writing, words — remains the most important form of content. But when people repeat the cliché that content is king, they don’t usually mean text. They’re talking about maps, podcasts, user generated video, games and, uh, ringtones. Even ringtones are more exciting than writing.

Why is that? Here are some tentative answers:

1. Text has been around for a few thousand years. It’s old hat.
2. They teach it in primary school. Unlike authoring Flash, for instance, writing is not a specialist skill and, in theory and at some level, almost anyone can do it.
3. Copy is low tech. It’s so basic you can use Notepad. No application suites, no “native environment”, no development teams. Why would anyone pay for something that simple?

So how do you persuade a client to spend serious money on something that is old, basic and simple?

The story so far: from page to TV to cut scenes

All new media start by imitating those that went before them. Early radio was long-distance music hall entertainment. Film was moving pictures, and they still call it that. TV started out as radio with pictures.

The web is now going through its second phase of imitation.

During the first phase, it mimicked books and other paper documents, and we still talk about page views, home pages, and other concepts borrowed from traditional publishing.

In its second phase, which we’re plodding through right now, the web is made to imitate radio and TV as well: webcasts, podcasts, YouTube, iTunes, etc. Here’s a new medium that’s imitating all of the old ones at once: print, radio, TV and film.

But it looks as though the web is finally outgrowing the hand-me-downs. More and more companies, from advertising agencies to retailers, are learning that the web isn’t a giant billboard, a TV ad or an interminable mail order catalogue.

Remember “interactive”? The thing that made the web special to start with? Before it turned into something as exciting as those “interactive menus” that old DVDs list among their special features? Well, interactive is back in a big way.

Because people (you can call them consumers, or audience segments, if you must) — especially the 25–40% who game — have less and less time for the display model, for TV, for things that just wash over them. That they can’t influence. Sites, for instance, that say, “Sit still! Listen! Stop fidgeting! Watch! Don’t do that! This is our brand! Don’t touch it!”

Don’t touch it? How tangible, how useful is that?

So here’s your good deed for today: go tell an e-commerce manager that her checkout is a lonely corridor crawl. And while you’re at it, have a word with her agency’s creative director too and whisper that his ads are cut scenes, really, that most of us skip.

Trust me, I work in PR

Best sitrep I’ve read in months: Gary Goldhammer’s “The state of the news media“.

Think what you will about a PR agency that publishes a Trust Barometer while keeping a straight face, but with people like David Brain and Goldhammer working for them, you can see why they’re doing well.