68. The Bing detour
[From Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams]
Here’s a simple example of the difference between pushing kids to memorize a technique and selling them on a process and an attitude:
The Bing search engine is owned by Microsoft—it’s their alternative to Google. In order to increase usage, they’ve built it into the home page that shows up in Microsoft Explorer, the Web browser built into Windows, the operating system installed on most PCs.
It turns out that one of the most popular items searched for in Bing throughout 2011 was the word “Google.”
Users type “Google” into Bing to get to Google so they can do a search (the very search they could have done in Bing, of course).
And then, when they get to Google, one of the most popular terms? Facebook.
They’re typing “Facebook” into Google to get to the social networking site, because they don’t know how to use the address bar at the top of the browser to type www.facebook.com, and they don’t know how to bookmark their favorite sites.
Clueless user: Bing—> “Google”—>Google—>“Facebook”—>Facebook
Motivated user: Hit bookmark
Should you memorize this tip? Of course not. What’s missing is that millions of Americans, people possessing computers that would have cost a million dollars just ten years ago, are operating out of habit and fear and treating the computer like a magic box. They’re afraid to wonder if they can replace Bing with Google. Afraid to ask how to get rid of Internet Explorer and install Firefox. Too lazy to ask their colleagues if there’s a better way. They don’t look for tips or ways to break or open or fix or improve. They self-describe as Dummies and give up, not for lack of genetic smarts, but for lack of initiative and because of an abundance of fear.
They weren’t sold on a forward-leaning posture when it comes to technology, so they make no effort, acting out of fear instead of passion. For the rest of their lives.
That forward-leaning posture is teachable.
Tags: stopstealingdreams
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