John Gruber on what this hilariously confused comment thread on ReadWriteWeb, in which hundreds of people think an article about Facebook’s login system IS Facebook’s login system because it’s ranked highly in search results, says about the state of computing, and the iPad specifically:
It’s funny, yes, but it’s a fascinating glimpse at just how confused many people are about how web sites and browsers work. They don’t use bookmarks, they don’t type “facebook.com” in the location field. They just Google for whatever they’re looking for and assume the first result is correct. All this argument over whether the iPad is too simple — if anything it’s probably still too complex.
Exactly. All the folderol over how the iPad doesn’t do this, doesn’t do that, doesn’t have a this port or a that-facing camera, etc., misses the point. As I’ve argued before, Apple wants the iPad to work for people who don’t know how to use their browser. Being a computer user is practically required to be a functioning member of society now, and rather than expecting everyone to learn our outdated software based on outdated metaphors, Apple is trying something new.
The real trick they’ve pulled off with the iPhone is that it’s also extremely functional and useful for people who do have computer skills. The iPad will probably give both groups plenty of reasons to plop down their cash, too.
And yes, you could argue that the lack of Flash and other things people “expect” on the web is extra confusing for just these kinds of users, and you’d be right, but it won’t matter. They’ll still buy it, and content providers will find a way to get to those users without using Flash. It’s already true on the iPhone, it’ll just move faster when the iPad comes out.
I just want to get into Facebook, what is this shit
Between this and the gay men and lesbians/homosexual poll news from earlier today, I am completely losing my faith in humanity.
I agree about the iPad, though.
WHUT IZ THIS SLOGG I WNAT MA FACEBACK BACK!
One device to rule them all.
One device to BIND them.
One device to rule them all.
And in Seattle find them.
Three devices for the Mac heads
In their ivory towers
iPod, iMac, and iPhone
all covered with flowers.
Five devices for the Linux brethren
Hard-working and lean
Use less cycles to get the job done
And make their eyes all gleam.
Nine devices for the Windows folk
to do the job some of the time
They all die as mortal devices
taken by the Blue Screen of Death
One device to rule them all
iPad is it’s name
None can withstand it’s fairie might
And the mome raths outgrabe.
this new pad sucks, i just want my old kotex back
What’s confusing is that I don’t understand how they could think that’s Facebook. Was it the number one Google result at some point today?
My favorite is the woman who has now switched her alliegance to Bing over Google because of this horrible new FB design (which isn’t FB at all, of course). Bing, you see, returns FB as the first search result; evil Google doesn’t.
People are dumb.
Never mind, I should have read Gruber’s opening paragraph. Sorry.
Bing, because being Canadian means never having to say you’re sorry for lacking bandwidth. Or sex.
I like all of them!!! but this is my favorite comment:
“I truly love Faceback.I am able to talk to more then one person.”
So true! Every time I’m talking to a friend, and someone else walks up, I have to close my eyes, turn my whole body to face the new person and open my eyes again to begin a new conversation. Once that’s done I can faceback to my previous friend.
(I also love that everyone is linked to their facebook account, 4chan should get try to get the top google hit)
I like all of them!!! but this is my favorite comment:
“I truly love Faceback.I am able to talk to more then one person.”
So true! Every time I’m talking to a friend, and someone else walks up, I have to close my eyes, turn my whole body to face the new person and open my eyes again to begin a new conversation. Once that’s done I can faceback to my previous friend.
(I also love that everyone is linked to their facebook account, 4chan should get try to get the top google hit)
Holy jesus. I’m having a REALLY hard time believing that all of those commenters thought that that was the new facebook login page. Really?!? A NEWS ARTICLE? I mean, even if they’re not “good” at the internet, they must know a news article when they see one, be it a hard copy or one a website. Right?!?!?!
So nice, I said it twice.
But seriously, this is kind of a problem with slog.
“im going back to my fuckin space u ass holes have to fuck up a good this !!!!! dumn asses”
priceless.
Right, it’s not Google’s fault, it’s the users fault.
Just like all the people run over and killed by LINK light rail were “walking the wrong way”.
@12 i agree it is hard to believe but it’s true. My Mom navigates the web this way. I have explained the problems but she pays no mind. She has found a way that works for her, be it ever so inefficient, and she is proud and comfortable with that.
Easier to just let her be.
Yes, this seems to be the typical way a mom uses the web.
My mom uses gmail daily. But she has no idea what a web browser is, how to type an address into the location bar, how to copy/paste, how to Quit an application, what an application is, etc. It tooks years before she would put text into the Subject line of emails.
I seriously doubt there’s more than a handful of the commenters who possibly thought that was really Facebook. The rest of the people (“omg morons think this is Facebook! Leave the gene pool!”) are your standard I’m The Smartest Person on the Internets dickheads.
One day all of us will grow very old and no longer able to navigate the Internet. That will suck.
I knew eventually someone would mention their mom. At least they didn’t LOL about what their mom did. Yet.
HominidX’s right. Someday some of the above dickheads will feel the sting of a younger person’s ridicule and realize “OMG! They think I’m one of THOSE people!” And indeed they will be.
@19:
Not so. Those of us who are getting older – by the day – but who still possess the basic requisite cognitive skills will still be able to navigate the Internet. It’s all these middle/late aged newbies who have NO FUCKING CLUE how the Internet works who will continue to be confused by these seeming obvious-yet-apparently-simple protocols who will continue to be confused by the Big Tubes Running Through Their Cable Boxes that will be left behind.
Eternal September… it really is an eternal September…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_sep…
There, fixed it for you.
If Americans have learned anything from the events of the last few years, it’s that there’s no challenge so great that it can’t be overcome by thoughtlessly heaving fistfuls of money at it. Meanwhile, poor kids around the world are learning to use and, gasp, program real computers. Don’t pity them; someday they’ll be eating your lunch.
Wait, so your rationalization for the mediocrity in the iPad is the fact that there are morons out there too stupid to learn the web who would welcome a devise tailored to their ignorance? More importantly, is this something Apple (and society as a whole) should be proud to offer?
Personally, I think that if the internet has become a required skill, anyone who refuses to learn the basic understanding needed to operate it should reap the consequences of their ignorance until they decide they WANT to learn.
(If someone refuses to eat, do we design a spoon that forces food down their throat…?)
All of the people who are unable to differentiate between Facebook and an article about Facebook are Republicans, and many of them specifically are fans of Sarah Palin.
Why is there this assumption around Slog that anyone interested in an iPad is some mouth-breathing moron who’s never been on the Internet or even used a computer before?
You’ve argued this before, and you’re dead wrong. The people who buy the iPad — like those with iPhones — are MORE technical than the general public. It’s a cool toy that opens you to a vast array of technical possibilities, and requires technical acumen to take advantage of.
The people who can’t tell a search engine from Facebook aren’t going to be spending $600-800 on an iPad.
Yeah, sure. And the people who can tell the difference are going to really love those 7 KB/sec download speeds on AT&T’s illustrious network.
I know people like that, who don’t bookmark or type URLs but just Google them. It weirds me out. Is that really faster?
no
@24, 26, 27 – That’s not what I’m saying. The iPad will appeal to both groups, just as the iPhone does. The iPhone revolutionized the smartphone market because it’s insanely easy to use, but it’s also powerful if you install various apps and if you care about some of it’s more advanced features. The iPad will appeal to lots of people, I’ve never said it’s for idiots.
What I’m saying is that it’s for non technical people. Computer use for many, many people is VERY frustrating. It’s all around them, they know it’s important, but they don’t get it, and that’s what this article showed. Apple is attempting to change the way computers are used so you don’t have to get it, you can just use it. You don’t have to know anything about operating systems, installers, file systems, etc., you can just do what you want to do. See the transmission analogy from my previous post (linked in this one).
What I like about the idea behind the iPad is that it’s in no way constrained by the way computers have been since their invention.
@27 – This is just false. Many technical people have iPhones, true. But many many iPhone owners are not technical at all, and they love their iPhones. You think Apple sold 75 million iPhones to geeks? No.
Sorry, I meant the larger Slog community with regard to this and previous iPad threads. I agree with you about the iPad and where Apple is going with it. Anything that makes technology easier for the average person to use is a GOOD thing.
You’re confusing geeks with people who are technically savvy, whether it’s with a computer or a Tivo or a phone. There are plenty of savvy users today. But the technically challenged people who can’t find Facebook may buy an iPhone — given it has an obvious practical application — but I dont see them shelling out for an iPad.
@33 – I still disagree. They can find Facebook, they just only know one way to find it and they don’t understand (or care) WHY they found it that way. They just type it into Google and go. The iPad (and devices like it which are sure to follow) makes that simple and clear. You want Facebook? Tap Facebook.
this new facebook is gay. where’s my mafia wars?
@31, 75 million iPhones? I don’t think so. They shipped 14 million in ’08, maybe 22 million in ’09. I saw a forecast for 80 million shipped TOTAL through 2012. And their smartphone market share is dropping (though sales are increasing). Not that they care; they’re still rolling in dough from it.
@36 – Well, add iPod Touch sales to that, and it’s close. Doesn’t really matter though, and the small dip in smartphone market share is true, but probably because the market for smart phones has expanded so much since the release of the iPhone, and there’s actually some reasonable competition now (Android).
Quite so; and I think it’s fair to point to the overall smartphone market, because one way the success or failure of the iPad will be measured, perhaps the most important way, is not in iPad sales but in total sales of similar devices. Unless you’re a pure-blooded Apple fanboy, of course, like some people I could mention. But really, what changes the game is creating a new market. If the iPad does well enough to make the Kindle better, to make pad computers from Toshiba or HP or Dell or whomever (an Android pad?), then it will have been a success, whether Apple’s market share is 10% or 90%.
So Apple refusing Flash (or Flash Light) on the iPad isn’t about their control over the platform or AT&T’s control over the content delivered on their network… it’s about making sure the iPad is simple enough for the Internet dunces to use.
Holy shit that’s the biggest logical leap I’ve read so far this year.
@38 – Yes, indeed. And I’d say that outcome is likely. Android will show up on a tablet real soon, I’m sure (Nook doesn’t count).
@39 – It is quite a leap, but it’s not one I made. What you’re implying, though—that Apple is anti-Flash so they can control the platform—is silly. They do control the platform, with or without Flash, but if you mean control over where content can come from, that’s also silly. You can get content onto Apple devices in lots of ways, mostly via apps. There are countless apps that deliver video, and a Hulu and Netflix app for the iPad can’t be far away.
It’s not some big conspiracy—they just don’t feel that Flash is necessary for the success of their products, or that it’s worth the cost (in performance, battery life, and support).