The connection and the diffusion of the browser were the disruptive
force that annihilated the distance between offer and
demand. In the ?¬?rst stages of general Internet access, practically
everything was free: content, IM programs, archives, forums.
Notable exceptions were the still-converging email services and
porn content. The latter pioneered online payment, stumbling in
a few youthful goofs, such as using regular expressions for validating
credit card numbers or restricting access by veri?¬?cation
of a ???serial number??? as opposed to full-?¬‚edged authentication.
The latter was an approach that was already failing for software
packages and that was far too brittle to be effective for an increasingly
connected audience.
All those activities taught people the ropes of user interface (UI)
interaction. Like the ATM a few years earlier, the use of the
browser (and personal objects, such as mobile phones and digital
music players later) increased the pro?¬?ciency of the end user;
the ?¬‚ashing time and date from VCRs became a less-frequent
sight.
The early near business-less phase was a great sandbox for users
and technologies.
As the episodic usage model gave room more and more often to
the concept of the returning user, consumers learned to handle
new kinds of resources.
Pages:
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46