A Web Site Lovely As A Tree

Computer Life column for June 27, 1998
by
Richard Gordon

I recently read about a company that can put advertising in the "overscan" area of your computer monitor. That's right, advertisements and Web links will appear in the black area between the plastic case and the image on your computer screen.

We are used to advertising banners at our favorite Web sites. We might even rejoice if the ad slows down the latest bad news from the World Cup. But usually, it's an annoyance when a message from a clothier delays your search results.

We've all seen e-mail that ends with admonitions to come and join the sender in using this or that "free e-mail" service.

Some of the free chat areas on the web, spaces where 2-200 people can all type away madly as if attending the on-line equivalent of a loud cocktail party, have large ad banners at the top and the bottom of the screen.

No free lunch

When I was a young, low-level staffer for the Missouri House of Representatives, I once screwed up my courage to ask a lobbyist for a pair of baseball tickets.

He turned me down flat, reminding me of just how low I was with a withering remark: "There are no freebies, son. Someone has to pay for everthing."

I told his retreating form that I would gladly pay for the tickets.

"Then buy them yourself!", he shouted without turning around.

A lot of us old-time Net users are in an analogous situation. I thought that because my bosses, the state representatives, could approach lobbyists and ask for tickets, I should share that privilege.

As someone who has had Net access at work for more than a decade, I'm one of those people who now expects the privilege of Internet access. A lot of Network users confuse that privilege with a right--somehow expecting that by virtue of being American citizens we have an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness at speeds up to 56 KBPS.

Some of the people with this attitude are offended when they get e-mail from someone using a free e-mail service like Hotmail (www.hotmail.com). All that e-mail ends with a commercial announcement like this:

You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

But just as that licensed lobbyist reminded me about those tickets to see the baseball Cardinals, we need to remember that someone has to pay for the technology behind our use of the Net.

Most of us can find deals to get unlimited access to the Internet for $20 per month or less--depending on what kind of features we're looking for. However, some people find it galling that, in addition to paying that fee, they have to see commercials in e-mail they receive or on Web pages they visit.

But that $20 doesn't come close to footing the true bill for Net access and Net development. How would you like it if you received a bill every time you went to Hotbot (www.hotbot.com) or Alta Vista (www.altavista.digital.com) to fire off a search for something on the Web?

In this age of "branding"--when companies in all sectors of the economy are trying to make consumers dream and think only of their brand name or trademark--it makes sense how much advertising has become part of our Internet experience.

It happened with television. It even happened with the development of this country's highway system. As long ago as 1933, in a parody of Joyce Kilmer's "Trees," Ogden Nash wrote

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all.

Sometimes it feels as if the on-line billboards are squeezing out the on-line content. But before you complain, recognize that Americans have a history of allowing advertising to fund most of our media.

I'd rather see banner ads than have to pay $55 per month for Net access.

But being force-fed ads in the formerly black areas of our computer screens may make it time to form an Information Superhighway Beautification Commission.

Copyright © 1998, The News Journal Company

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