While you're pouring your first cup of coffee for the day, your computer is booting up.
You check your e-mail.
On your way to work, you sneak a minute to check your email on your cell phone. As soon as you get into your office, you turn on your computer and...
You check your e-mail.
And the sports scores from last night, plus world news, the performance of your portfolio, your bank statement, your favorite comic strip, and a quick check on the exact lyrics of the song running through your mind.
Can't live without your Net? Neither can millions of other people. So how does www impact your b-i-z? Read the new book “Click” by Bill Tancer, and you might find out.
Let's say you were watching some “based on a true story” TV show last night, and you wondered what was fabrication and what was real. If you're like millions other people, you used a computer search engine to find information on that, as well as thousands of other subjects.
On his way to work one day, Bill Tancer heard a “fact” that sent him on a mission. As head of sales, business development, and market research at LookSmart, a search engine that works with advertisers, Tancer wanted to see if the “fact” was real. Several spreadsheets later, he had his proof.
This led him to question several things about Internet data: why are some Web sites visited seasonally - in the “wrong” season? How can a population's biggest fears be turned into a “how to” query? Is a list of popular searches really indicative of what Internet users are looking for? Are you going out on a limb when you ask commercial viewers or listeners to click on your business' link?
Tancer found some provocative things in his search. Women's magazines drive Web site usage for the formalwear industry. Visits to adult Web sites occur most frequently on Friday night and fall to weekly lows on Sunday. And, based on political Web site visits, it's “nearly impossible to... predict election results based solely on Web site visits and search-term volume.”
So how does this impact your business?
Beats me. I was pretty well lost by the second chapter.
While author Bill Tancer appears to be very excited about his research and while there was the occasional AHA! moment, the problem with “Click” is that it's way overloaded with data that, ultimately, means little unless you're in one of the handful of industries he cites.
Page after page of “Click” is jam-packed with information on Web use and data searches, but - with the exception of one chapter (about “early adopters”) - winnowing through it was difficult at best. I think if you've got the time to connect the dots, you might find some valid information, but what's here surely boggled my brain.
At one point in “Click,” Tancer gushes about how much he loves data. You'd better love it, too, if you tackle this could-have-been-fascinating book. If you're not a data devotee, though, click on “no thanks.”
Terri Schlichenmeyer is the author of The Bookworm Sez, which is published in more than 200 newspapers and 50 magazines throughout the U.S. and Canada. The Bookworm Sez is protected by copyright and may not be reprinted or distributed without permission. Schlichenmeyer may be reached at bookwormsez@yahoo.com.
