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Here's a sad statistic: (early 2001) WebTv users account for 1% of the worlds' browsers, with an average of 2.2 users per unit. That comes out to roughly 1.5 milion users, 90% of which would recommend it's use to others. So far, so good. BUT WebTv users account for only 0.01% of visits to other than WebTv made sites. That means we are seperating ourselves from the rest of the internet. Are we too scared to surf? Too lazy to navigate? Or just too damn stupid? You tell me.
A growing number of web developers are revamping their designs to accomodate Webbers, but we are not returning that respect. Some internet gurus are predicting that this will cause the early demise for Webtv. It will either die, or be reduced to an email and TV listings only service. 'WebTv Japan" has folded under as of March 2002, are we next? Is this what we want? It seems it is what we deserve. If we don't want the internet, why would the internet want us?
Microsoft bought out Webtv because it sensed a whole new marketshare for advertisers, a population segment that Internet businesses have yet to sap. Much to their suprise, they found that Webbers don't shop online, don't even visit commercial sites, but instead suck up every bit of bandwidth, every byte of storage possible. Our only interest seems to be finding yet another cute animation for our sigs. What a dissappointment. We are worth nothing.
Do you wonder why us poor ol' MsnTv users are the laughing stock of the Internet? It's our own damn fault. We make the most hideous sites on the Web. We embrace Webtv-only toys such as ugly audioscopes and garish moving sidebars, things that PC users can't 'see', nor want to. By focusing on these, we are only building the walls surrounding our self-imposed ghetto higher and higher.
Our HTML-crammed email signatures frazzle computer users' nerves and have made us unwelcome guests in PC user dominated newsgroups, so we feel safe behind our firewalled discussion groups, but who are we protecting ourselves from? The rest of the World. The internet is a vast blanket of sharing ideas and information; we are leaving ourselves out in the cold.
If the Internet has turned the world into a Global Village, we have exiled ourselves far away from the outskirts. When was the last time you visited a PC site, besides a search engine? Do you spend more time fretting over your HTML signature than surfing? the Internet provides you with the World at your keyboard, so why would you want to lock yourself in your gradient colored room?
But there's still hope! Explore! Be a rebel! Visit PC-made sites, and sign their guestbooks. Email webmasters with your praise. Fill out electronic comment cards. Subscribe to newsletters. Create a site that will blow away the average PC user. Do all the above signed with your WebTV nic, and sign it with pride. Let the rest of the Internet know that, yes, we can read, and no, we don't live in squalor. And please turn off your damn sig....
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NOT APART FROM THE WEB !