Just one comment captures just how fast the Web’s killing TV. 

A friend and his crew taping a 2010 Olympics-related event in Vancouver were approached by a group of kids, ages six to 10 years old, who asked excitedly: “Cool, are we going to be on YouTube?” 

YouTube. Forget about TV from the decades past. And when the group was told no, but that they’d be featured on TV, that news was met with a big, disappointing “Awwww.” 

The new generation is onto something. 

Sooner than later, those TVs in the family rooms will be giant screen monitors powered by the Web. The tipping point is here.

Consumers rule the Web. Consider bloggers; they freely praise or pan products and services, and companies can’t stop it.

While errors and incidents were easily swept under the rug during past decades, the Internet has made it easy for consumers to share horror stories with the masses.

When complaints about ongoing no-shows and screw ups fell upon deaf ears, I felt compelled to share my story about Rogers Customer Service. Now, when someone types Rogers customer service into Google and friends, there’s a good chance they’ll read about the poor service.

Meanwhile, when I was looking for Kauai vacation rentals, I read some shining reviews. Objective feedback – good or bad — has vast influence.

These valuable bits of information shared by consumers around the world often tell the real stories as companies can’t embed their spin. But they can respond.

And if they don’t, it’s bad for the both the brand and the bottom line.

China’s government reported the country has surpassed the U.S. as the online population leader with more than 221 million Internet users.

The figure, reported this week by the Xinhua News Agency, reflects China’s explosive growth in Internet use. It was a 61 percent increase over the 137 million Internet users reported at the start of 2007.

Nielsen Online estimates the U.S. online population with home or work access at 221 million. By contrast, one-third of Chinese Internet users surf through cybercafes.

China currently has only 16 per cent Internet penetration — below the world average of 19.1 percent, and well below the approximately 50 per cent penetration in the U.S.

Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing technology company, said the Chinese online population should keep growing by 18 per cent annually, reaching 490 million by 2012 — a number larger than the entire U.S. population.

With China on its way to the top spot, the U.S. will likely maintain the number two position for some years; according to Internet World Stats, third-place India had only 60 million users as of December 2007.

Webcopyplus is involved with a Yale study and would appreciate your participation in a survey that takes less than 10 minutes to complete. There are 20 questions, and you could win a $20 Amazon gift certificate.

Just click on Soe City Survey.

– Thanks!

The New Yorker recently featured “Out of print: The death and life of the American newspaper.”

Journalist Eric Alterman speaks of the Internet’s rise, and how it’s made newspapers seem “slow and unresponsive.” Plus, the dawn of websites like Craigslist is killing print classified advertising.

The outcome, according to media entrepreneur Alan Mutter, is that independent, publicly traded American newspapers have lost 42 per cent of their market value in the past three years alone.

“Until recently, newspapers were accustomed to operating as high-margin monopolies,” wrote Alterman. “To own the dominant, or only, newspaper in a mid-sized American city was, for many decades, a kind of license to print money.”

Meanwhile, eMarketer reported more than $8.6 billion was spent on search engine advertising in 2007, an amount that could reach $16.6 billion in 2011.

It gives the impression it’s just a matter of a few years before newspapers become obsolete.

A total of 480 Internet users who participated in a recent Webcopyplus poll rated the overall quality of web content, and the marks are less that stellar. In fact, more than 88 per cent of the online poll respondents believe they are served “poor” content on the Web.

Additionally, subsequent interviews with web users revealed numerous common concerns.

Read the full story: Web delivers poor content

While growth of the US online population has slowed in recent years (projected to be 3.1 per cent in 2008), the number of the nation’s Internet users will reach nearly 200 million in 2008.

That’s according to eMarketer, which analyzes Internet information from more than 3,000 sources.

The Internet research firm also reports Internet usage in the US is becoming a daily habit. Moreover, it reports US Internet users spent 15.3 hours a week online last year.
 
eMarketer also projects that this year there will be 193.9 million US Internet users — two-thirds of the population. By 2012, 217 million Americans will be online, it reported.
 
Meanwhile, Internet World Stats, which utilizes data from Nielsen, ITU and other reliable sources, reports 215 million Americans already use the Internet – 71.4 per cent of the US population.
 
In either case, those are huge numbers and worth tapping into — regardless what business you’re in.

When delivering web content courses, business owners often ask, “How do you find a good copywriter for the Web?” Whether you’re based in London, Toronto or New York, the answer is simple.

Do an online search.

Good copywriters know how to craft copy that persuades people to act, be it to enlist as a member, sign up for a newsletter or purchase a widget.

Good web copywriters can deliver potent copy for people. But they also understand how to write effectively for search engines. They help businesses choose and strategically use select words that will drive targeted audiences to their websites.

Consequently, an effective way to find a good web copywriter is to see who shows up on the top rankings of Google, Yahoo, MSN or your search engine of choice. If they can promote themsleves, they can promote you.

Plug in words surrounding web copy writers, professional web copy or what have you, and away you go. A few searches and you’ll be well on your way to finding the right web writer to optimize your website and your business.

Despite major drawbacks of Flash-based sites, some business owners continue to fall into this trap.

As previously noted in Backbone Magazine, Webcopyplus recognizes Flash is an outstanding tool for adding audio, video and animation to a site. However, Flash-based sites can’t be indexed by search engine spiders, which account for the majority of traffic to websites. As a result, these beautiful websites often draw little, if any, traffic.

Moreover, Flash intros prove to be a waste of time and resources. Fortunately, most businesses and designers are moving away from this pointless gimmick, which squanders visitors’ time and web owners’ money.

The Flash topic is one that many individuals are passionate about. In fact, the noted Backbone article prompted a prolonged Ubuntu Forums debate that involved more than 3,400 viewers, almost 300 votes and more than 80 responses.

Expensive lesson

Going against Webcopyplus’ advice, a client in the Canadian fashion industry forged forward with plans to launch a Flash-based site. That was in the spring of 2007. Less than a year later, the business owners are preparing to invest in another site.

They now realize it doesn’t matter how good their site looks; if no one can find it, it might as well not exist.

Why did they do it? The business owners wanted to work with a specific designer based in Los Angeles. This designer, it turns out, was only familiar with Flash and did not wish to collaborate with others.

Had they taken the designs and contracted a programmer to incorporate the images into an HTML or CMS site, this business would be thousands of dollars and several months ahead.

Think long and heard before you agree to a Flash-based site. Chances are you’ll be glad you did.  

Content Convergence and Integration 2008 is coming up from March 12 to 14 in Vancouver, B.C., which promises to help content professionals find more strategic ways to manage content.

This is integral in the new digital world where content gets created and syndicated, integrated, repurposed and redistributed.

Content professionals, from Web to marketing to technical communication professionals, can discover and tap into new techniques to stay ahead of the curve.