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March 28, 2002

And Now, Lili Von Schtup's Number

Glenn Davis is tired of the Web, as reported in today's New York Times. My eponymous colleague is the guy who started Cool Site of the Day at Infi.Net, later taken over by other people when he went to try to inculcate good design standards and practices.

The article notes Glenn's malaise and talks to some other 1994 veterans who can't find anything worth looking at or doing. Some relevant statistics are trotted out about how users are spending less time, on average, and finding less oomph than they used to.

Here's one pioneer, who started coding HTML in May 1994 and has barely passed a single day since without writing some, who isn't tired of the Web or the Net! Look, I'm a textbook case of a Net guy. I started one of the very first Web development firms in June 1994. I joined Amazon.com for six months in October 1996. I left and started writing articles and books on Web design, marketing, and development. I put together conferences on Internet marketing and advertising and design that attracted thousands of people. I built a site that leverages search engines, data, and bookstores (isbn.nu), and generates a steady cash flow from just sitting there and smiling.

And I still wake up every day, and find new and interesting, thought-provoking ideas, concepts, and sites. Maybe that's the difference: I'm less interested in form now that everything more or less works most of the time. OS X and Windows XP saved me hundreds of hours in the last six months of rebooting, reinstalling, and system messing. The latest browsers work mostly correctly on most Web sites, so I don't have to play games to view content. My Web design tools, like GoLive, Photoshop, and LiveMotion, are mature, and work in their very latest releases without futzing.

In other words, I can get my work done with much less concern about the failings of tools than the actual work itself after many long years.

So now I focus on content: I read. I write. I exchange email with fascinating people. I synthesize and produce. The Web has turned back into its roots as tools for writing and collaborating abound, the latest wave of the Web. The Web is now more important again as a textual medium because the graphical stuff is fixed and works and we expect it. We're now in the next Golden Age.

Malaise? Hardly.

Posted by Glennf at March 28, 2002 9:46 PM

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