The Death of a Website

Picture it if you will. A website, once proud and busy it now lays dead upon the floor, like some tossed away relic from a time long ago.

How did the website die? Well, it remained static. Even though its’ creators believed they were using a dynamic content driven technology, the result in the end is just the same. It died. Let me say this on the subject, it didn’t die suddenly, and yes, its’ death could have maybe been avoided. Technologies like smart-phones (think BlackBerry and iPhone) and tablets (iPad) created a world that didn’t rely upon websites. Instead they used apps. Very narrow focused apps. People like their apps. They work. It’s that simple.

Wait a second you say, “we just spent x number of thousands getting our new website up for our corporation”. That’s great. I am sure the programmers you employed made sure your website is 100% compliment with BlackBerry, Android and iPhone. Right? They did show you how well your site worked on these devices? They also did show you how well your site worked on a PlayStation 3, as well as the latest generation of “smart-televisions” which employ apps? They also explained how users of the Internet under the age of 25, tend not to use ANY web-browser if it can at all be avoided, right? Your back-end scripts written in .net do work on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 running BBOS 5, right? Your site doesn’t rely upon Flash, because we all know, any iPhone or iPad won’t support Flash.

Wait a second, NONE of this was explained to you before you signed the cheque and spent 6 months getting a new killer site designed, and deployed???? hrms…. I hope your bosses are very understanding individuals. Maybe there are that super-small percentage of people who don’t use a smart-phone or tablet or console or smart-TV. After all, there is always the chance that their wife/husband or children aren’t going to ask them why the new website doesn’t work on (name any device) the phone.

How does this happen? When did it happen? Why did it happen?

Well, tons has been written about all three questions. It happened over the last ten years. It happened because technology evolved. It happened because users got sick and tied of stuff on the web that just didn’t work correctly.

Still with me? Good, now I’ll do a semi-brief time-line which I hope explains this.

1994:

Sitting in Edmonton, AB with a fellow geek, we come up with the idea of trying to sell virtual mallspace to businesses. Gold-mine we figure. What we didn’t count on, is most people at this point had zero idea about the existence of the Internet, let alone the web.

In 1994 people use the phonebook to look up numbers and addresses as well as businesses. People use TV news or the newspaper to find out what’s happening and what the weather forecast is for the next 3 days. People use stereos which employ CDs, cassette tapes and records to play music on. In the most basic concepts, the idea of an app hasn’t been born yet, unless you’re an uber-geek using a UNIX desktop on a computer. Average home computer costs over $2000.00 to buy.

1995:

Netscape takes the buggy browser known as Mosaic and creates the first mass version of a web-browser. Computers start to come with CD-Rom players. Windows 95 is introduced and a monolithic corporation known as Microsoft does a complete 180 turn as Bill Gates see the potential of the Internet.

People still newspapers, phonebooks and TV for news and information.

2000:

The web has grown. The Dot.com era has come of age. Apple promises a new operating system which will change everything. Maybe 60% of people have cell-phones. PDAs (remember your Palm Pilot?) are the rage with geeks.

People now use the web to search for restaurants, locate used cars to buy, research MLS listings for houses for sale, find out about the weather forecast, and every major news channel on the planet has an almost real-time website for news. The phonebook companies take a beating as people stop paying for Yellow pages ads. Why? Why use paper when you can find it online?

2003:

First generation social media sites are up and running. Most people have a cell phone, some even have a smart-phone. Apple has released OS X which is the most reliable, easy to use, operating system ever created. You can order pizza online, book vacations online, trade stocks online, buy and sell used goods online, hell, you can even find your perfect man or woman online with the existing dating sites of the time. RSS feeds start to push news and information to people’s cellphones and desktops.

No one I know uses a phonebook anymore. No one I know pays for ads in the Yellow Pages anymore. If you’re a business and you’re not online, you might as well be dead.

2007:

Facebook is alive and well. Everyone I know has heard of it, and about 20% of people I know, are using it. The uber-geek crowd now tells one another to “Facebook me”. The university crowd uses FB for everything from dating, to studying, to finding a room-mate. People have smart-phones. Our personal privacy is being taken away form us, but none of us seem to sincerely care. Your every action can be photographed by strangers with pocket sized digital cameras or smart phones and those pics can be posted to the Internet via a wide selections of social media sites. People in North America are txting and BBMing one another via phones. VoIP has taken off around the globe. Craigslist and UsedEverywhere networks make it possible to buy anything new and used, via the net. Laptop sales start to over take desktop sales. Apple talks about a new tool called a widget, which will be in one of the next releases of OS X.

Websites have evolved. Users now create content. Users contribute content, both plain and rich media. People are more connected with one another than any other point in history. The term “viral” is used when marketing gurus discuss success in business and online. SEO is now a phrase used in business and marketing. Newspapers, phonebooks and print advertising have all taken a brutal hit as people use the web and technology instead of the traditional tools. A generation has grown up digitally. Users are starting to realize they have serious consumer control. And users are fed up with websites that don’t work correctly.

2011:

A website dies. It has been replaced by specialized applications called, “apps” which people now use on their computers, their cellphones, their smart-TVs and their tablets. The phone companies have struck back, and users now download and install an app on their BlackBerry which allows them to search phonebooks around the globe. People check the weather with another app from The Weather Network. People can search for a used car with an app published by Auto Trader. I can book vacations, flights, car rentals, etc all from my smart-phone. My 11 year old daughter uses her iPad for everything from instant messaging, to checking email, to watching videos on YouTube. Her computer has collected dust since she got her iPad. Hell, her Sony PS3 has only been touched twice since she got her iPad for XMAS (and that’s over a month ago BTW).

For myself… I logon to Facebook, YouTube and maybe one or two more sites with my web-browser. Most of the time I use my trusty BlackBerry. I send emails to clients via my phone, compose quotes on my phone, review documents via my phone, edit presentations via my phone, instant message via my phone. I can all of this from pretty much anywhere. I am no longer tied to my desktop iMac, and I don’t have to carry around a bulky laptop with me wherever I go.

But guess what I don’t do much of my phone, even though it DOES have the ability to? I don’t surf the web with my phone.

And here’s the killer. Sign up with most cellphone companies on a three year term, and they give you the phone for free.

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