This and That: Whither the Internet

      by Elizabeth B. Wright       February 2004

There is no need to go into the history of the Internet. That can be found in better form on, where else, the Internet. But there are other things to consider in this new millennium.

The worst thing all of us have dealt with the past few years has been spam. Next to that, maybe its twin is pop-up ads. So what does this have to do with anything? I present to you a new problem.

My first concern is just how useful is the Internet to many of us these days? I find it harder and harder to get accurate, not to even approach needed, information on health and other issues anymore. The little that I know about designing Web sites is that the more times you use certain key words in the opening pages of a large site the more likely your site will appear in the initial findings during a search by one of the engines such as Google or Yahoo. I’m sure there are other more sophisticated ways of getting your site in the first or early listing, but I will leave that to the experts in Web design. My point is, the hucksters, snake-oil sales companies, and any other bad name I can call these people are reaping buckets of money from people who are too willing to believe what they see on the Internet and seem to stop at the first few pages. Much like having a business name that is in the early “A” list in the yellow pages of a phone book.

Case in point:

When our daughter was first diagnosed with cancer, the doctors here and at M.D. Anderson all told her it was so rare that they had no specific treatment for it. She was given very little chance of living more than six months at that time. The fact that the treatment provided by her excellent doctors here in Oklahoma City has kept her alive for four years so far means only one thing: She was dealing with specialists who knew what they were looking at and were willing to treat her, not for the money, but for the possibility of arresting the disease.

Now, after four years time, when I search the Internet for her particular cancer all kinds of pages are listed. One of the first ones, which claims to have some miracle cure, states that it is the most common kind of cervical cancer!! Now were her doctors, the most highly-respected and medically-recognized in the treatment of cancer, wrong about the prevalence of, and treatment for, the disease? NO, NO, NO. A THOUSAND TIMES, NO! Even taking into account advances made in cancer treatment in four years, the answer does not lie in that venue. The hucksters simply found out that people were searching the Internet for information on her form of cancer and were quick to add it to the list of things on their Web sites enough times to have it appear quickly in the initial pages of any search, regardless of the validity or usefulness of their offering.

Because I have run into this problem so many times recently, I have almost given up searching for any entity I feel might be trustworthy. If I don’t have some clue to help me find a particular URL, searching has become frustrating, tiresome and boring. I am not interested in getting site after site for example of travel companies offering their services when all I want is geographical or people-related material about places on this earth that are different from where I live.

Frankly, I don’t see this problem getting any better. I’m sure it will get much worse in fact. There must be some way I can improve the way I look for Internet subjects and I am interested in hearing some tips on surfing. But, please, don’t try to sell me anything!!

    Elizabeth Wright is a member of the OKCPCUG and a regular writer for the eMonitor