The Semel Moment: How We Must Learn To Face The Consumer Again

Google's AdSense program got the jump on ripple effect with its millions of text boxes. The model was a success, making money by using the internet the way people use the internet, fanning out in search of stuff they need and want to know, sometimes in only bite-size pieces. Paid search and companion text boxes scaled beautifully and effortlessly by going with the flow of the market. Behind them, you could practically hear the sound of the portals groaning under their own weight. The emerging generation of online audiences doesn't use search engines. It doesn't use portals, either. It's facile and familiar with the internet and unafraid of social network content and user-generated content and independent content without pretence of any sort.