If you're like me and you live in the country, you may be lucky enough
to have even one choice. For me that choice is satellite. And believe
me, I tried. And tried.
Yet I'm still on a regular ISP. My own experience is not unlike that
of many others in search of high speed internet access. You see, all three
choices mentioned above come with this side note: Even if it's available
in your area and you can get it installed properly, it may not turn out
to be all it's cracked up to be. I learned that first-hand.
It's no wonder web message boards are littered with still- slow web surfers
singing the broadband blues. It seems that as broadband technology makes
its way to the forefront it is encountering its share of problems. Among
them are high costs, unreliable connections and technicians who are, shall
we say, less than fully trained on the technology. Rather than bore you
with the details of my own trials and tribulations, I'll point you to
a few stories about each of these broadband access services...
DSL: Darn Stupid Line http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,33653,00.html
Cable Net Access Rides Slow Boat http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_4338.html
Making Sense of Satellite Services http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_3160.html
That's not to say YOU shouldn't give current high-speed technology a
try. If you want to give it a go, you can save some time and effort by
visiting http://www.getspeed.com to find out exactly which services are
available in your area.
OK, now that you know why broadband is in the "still coming" stages,
lets look forward a bit. After all, advances in technology take time to
become mainstream. And broadband access will become mainstream eventually.
It may be another 4 or 5 years before it qualifies as such, but it will
be here. While it is on the way, you as a web marketer must slowly prepare
for the changes.
Don't worry, I'm not going to suggest you try to compete with AOL and
Time Warner. Offering rich broadband streaming media is simply not going
to be feasible for most small web marketers.
And you probably don't have broadband updates worked into your budget.
I know I don't! And that's just fine for quite a while to come. You see,
until broadband is actually mainstream, filling your website with rich
content can actually be detrimental. It will hurt your "slow lane" web
surfers by bogging down their experience. Unless you can offer an experience
for BOTH fast and slow users you may be better off taking a minimal position.
But it is a good idea to at least "consider" your strategies and how
the eventual emergence of high-speed access may help your web presence.
You may even want to consider "easing" some broadband friendly content
into your site. There are lots of ways to do this. Here are just two examples
that should help you get your own ideas flowing... [cont..]
Click here and read part 2
