WHY are so many Web surfers rejecting the ‘Net?Cyber Dialogue, a research firm, says 108 million Americans have no desire to get wired online and 29 million occasional online users logged off for good so far this year.
And it’s only September!
Harris Communications said a whopping 40 percent of consumers have stopped buying the latest high-tech gadgets and devices and 40 percent of PC owners believe technology is too complicated.
It gets worse – at least 47 percent of Americans are “technology pessimists” and have a bad attitude about high-tech products and the Internet, says yet another study from Forrester Research.
This is all sad news to Surfer gURL.
Maybe some of these people would enjoy surfing more if they got ahold of two new inventions built for newbies.
A new product coming out in October, MySmart.Pad (www.mysmart.com) has 20 buttons that act like a channel bar or bookmarks, linking to the user’s Web browser.
It hooks up to the USB port on the computer and while it’s a little glitchy to install (works best with Windows 2000), it’s a fairly simple process.
When a user presses the “entertainment & sports” button, up pops corresponding sites on the PC. Another button takes users to his mail box.
Six programmable buttons allow a user to program in their favorite sites. While this might seem too few for the seasoned bookmark collector, it’s a decent number for new users who are trying to find their way around.
Anyone with ‘Net experience wouldn’t see the need to find sites through pre-selected channels rather than search engines, but new users might want a helping hand. At $19.95 for MySmart.Pad, this could help.
One cool feature is the MySmart key card, which uses a chip embedded in a plastic card to allow people to carry their personal information, including credit card names and numbers, from site to site securely and without having to type it time and again.
Eventually MySmart.com plans to have kiosks in malls, where users can use this card as well.
Another Web accessory wants to eliminate the mouse altogether.
One Voice Technologies has launched My Ivan (www.myivan.com), a software application that allows Internet users to surf the Web by talking to the highly vocal “Ivan,” a little blue animated globe-figure who sits in the corner of a computer screen.
One Voice has taken IBM’s ViaVoice voice-recognition technology and applied it to Web surfing.
Users, who need a microphone headset, can download the technology for free from the site, but it’s better to wait for the free CD to arrive in October because it’s a long download – 50 minutes on a high-speed line, four hours on a 56K modem.
Ivan, or “Intelligent Voice Interactive Technology,” speaks a bit like Hal from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” He can get a bit annoying, but it’s possible to make him stop talking.
The system processes natural-language commands and understands the structure of human language, so it can differentiate between nouns and verbs or homonyms to decipher a question and send users in the right direction.
The idea behind My Ivan is to make Web surfing as simple as possible to help technophobes, and non-typists, more easily Web surf. As an added advantage, it could help some people with disabilities into the surf.
Both products, and others such as keyboards with ‘Net surfing keys, are part of an effort to make the Web less intimidating to non-users.
“It’s not the products that draw people on line. That decision is very personal,” says Lydia Loizides, an analyst with research firm Jupiter Communications. “These products help to enhance the experience, which flavors your perception of the Internet.”
So once they’re online, they won’t jump ship and rejoin the world of Luddites. That’s a good thing.
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