Son: Have you tried out the new Microsoft search engine?
Father: I didn’t know they had one.
Mother: Oh – I knew – it’s called Chrome!
Son: …
Father: I don’t think we are on the cutting front of this stuff.
Mother: Don’t you mean the cutting edge?
Son: …
I overheard this conversation – during a personal phone call.
That's a good one. Here's what a colleague of mine recounted from an NYC subway experience a couple weeks ago...
He was reading his Amazon Kindle II when an elderly lady came up to him and asked, "Is that one of those Twitter things?"
He politely explained the difference. Of course, it's really funny if you're a Web 2.0 proselytizer living in the echo chamber. Not quite so funny if you're the actual web company entrepreneur or in marketing. Even less so if you're one of the 1500 alternative search engines fighting for just a little scrap of the $30+ billion search marketplace in a oceanic flood of often vowel challenged brand names.
Scott
Posted by: Scott Germaise | June 15, 2009 at 04:09 PM
This is the right blog to read about search! Way to go!
Posted by: FD | June 16, 2009 at 12:34 PM
That conversation was pretty much word for word what I had with my parents, and Bing's problem is that most people are probably like that.
Posted by: Japanese Rocket | June 18, 2009 at 08:01 PM