I am an Internet Explorer
Forget being a Mac or a PC. And forget that I use Firefox. We don’t give IE credit for its name.
Sure, the Internet (Google) is great for finding answers to very specific queries (which are getting longer and longer). But the real fun begins when you allow yourself to dive deeper into a story or explore tangentially related topics. When 5 or 15 minutes later you find yourself somewhere discovering something completely new (to you), asking how the hell did I get here and then tracing back your path. You surprise yourself.
You (movie, entertainment and pop culture junkies) have to love IMDB for this. I made a Ladybugs reference at work the other day (yes, I know, but we were talking about starting a co-ed soccer team and didn’t have enough girls so I told a male AD we call Jules that he could be our “Martha”), and it sent me on the hunt for a good still image from the movie during which I found this one…
…of JB and serious 7th grade crush, Kimberly Mullen, whose name I now know is Vinessa Shaw who I then realized was Josh Hartnett’s ex-girlfriend in 40 Days and 40 Nights (I should have realized – the bagel guy definitely knew that) which was home to my 10th grade crush Shannyn Sossamon (Shannyn with a ‘y’ just like Kiptyn from The Bachlorette)…and then I had to get back to work.
Which is actually a good segue to work we’ve done for ESPN.com. It was completely based on the personal journeys of sports fans. What goes through their minds, the connections they make, the paths they take and where they end up in the online home of sports. Here are a few of them.
Okay, now off to see where the search for little Josh in Big leads me.
2 Comments to I am an Internet Explorer
Good point.
This is what the websites (Ex: Hunch) and newer search engines (Ex: Bing) that are meant to find EXACTLY what you’re looking for are missing:
Serendipity
The web has given us a gift of layers upon layers of interconnected info. It’s like 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon multiplied by infinity (or Google). And people love this. They love to be surprised and are intrigued by the unexpected.
Ladybugs!
The ‘personal stories of sports fans’ reminded of me an idea I wrote-up on AdBakery a while back: It’s based on the premise that all sports fans dreamed of going pro at some point. Assuming this is true, then there was a moment in time when each of us had to face the hard reality that we weren’t good enough to make it.
Remember the old Reebok campaign that asked athletes– ‘when did you know (you were good enough to make it)?’ What if you flipped that and asked sports fans “when did you know (you weren’t going to make it)?’ I can imagine it would make for some great stories.
When did you know, Seth?
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August 6, 2009