Isn’t “Noise” The Point of it All?

I have read a lot lately about people complaining that there is too much “noise” on the internet and in social media in general. My reaction? Thats the point!

If someone walks into a room and there is total silence, there is a sense of loneliness, and one will get bored very quickly. I will liken that to what it is like to not have a computer at this point in time. Now you leave your dark, silent room and start talking to one, and only one, person. This was step two: buying your first computer. You can only talk to that one person about so many things, and then you’re back to silence. Now you’ve had enough silence. You want to know what other people are talking about. You want to interact with many people, not just one or two. You’ve moved on to the Internet, and there’s no silence to be found.

Isn’t that how we got to the point that we’re at? The internet (social media especially) was formed for the sake of sharing: information, stories, movies, pictures, music, advice … anything you can think of. Social networks take advantage of niches in this sharing environment, but none of them take away from the noise. They all add to it.

A lot of people have become sick of this noise and are trying to filter a lot of it out. Social aggregators like FriendFeed don’t filter, though, they just take ALL the noise and put it into one place. I like to think of it as turning up the volume (and yes, 11 really IS louder than 10!). Just thinking about all the noise that I am going to hear tonight, tomorrow and the next day gets me excited because I think of all the new things I will learn. It’s also how I get ideas for most of my posts. There are exciting news stories from Bloglines, though-provoking snippets from @ChrisBrogan on Twitter, and news from friends on Facebook. If you really want to hear from the master of noise, check out this post on productivity from Robert Scoble.

So when you’re thinking to yourself that there is too much noise on the Internet, think about why you came here in the first place. I imagine it certainly wasn’t to play by yourself in a quiet room. Remember, don’t be afraid to turn up the volume once in a while … you never know what you might learn.

Microsoft: The Spoiled Child of the Internet

What are some things that you think a company should do when it realizes it is having trouble competing with the “big dogs”? The first thing I would think of is redesign the product. After that, maybe try to compete in a different market. And if you still can’t compete? Give up.

None of these things seem to have been going through Microsoft’s mind as they are realizing that they are not able to keep up with Google’s search business. After coming away unsuccessful from the attempted Yahoo purchase, Microsoft is now saying that they are going to be paying people who use their search engine for online shopping. According to CNBC, people who use Live Search and “who sign up for an account and buy items found using Microsoft’s Live Search cashback site will receive a percentage of the purchase price deposited into their account. When the total reaches $5, the shoppers can redeem their “cold, hard cash” via eBay Inc.’s PayPal. Microsoft said the rebates are funded with a portion of the money it collects from advertisers.”

I am constantly amazed by the economics of the internet. Seeing companies consistently overvalued and not charging for their services is one thing, but this one takes the cake. Usually a business model involves people paying you so your company can be profitable, but I have never seen a model where the company pays the customer. This rebate money is coming straight out of their advertising profits. How absurd is that? It’s like paying someone to hang out with you.

It just proves one thing to me: Microsoft is becoming like a spoiled child who, when it doesn’t get its way, kicks and screams and does everything in its power to be successful. Of course, every business wants to be number one, but it is unreasonable to think that because they have absurd amounts of money they should be able to take over any market the enter. Sometimes they just need to learn when to give up.

What do you think about paying people to gain popularity? Let me know.