The Internet Has the Answer
The internet amazes me daily. When I first started at InsureMe, I poured over lists of keyword phrases that people were typing into Google or Yahoo before arriving at our homepage in order to determine on what keyword phrases we should bid.
I recall thinking this is going to be a sort of new-age societal footprint that future generations will explore to better understand the past—an online archaeological dig. Because using the internet is a somewhat private experience (it’s just you and the machine), people tend to forget that everything is traceable and it’s all being documented by companies that then sell that information to other companies to conduct market research.
Before you become completely paranoid, no one knows or cares what you specifically are looking at on the web, unless it’s illegal. I mean they can find out, but not without some serious reconnaissance; companies are more interested in demographics.
Each time I looked at these lists, I thought about the people sitting in front of their PCs, asking the internet their most personal questions, how to accomplish their goals or where they might find a job. The search terms that appeared on my list were typically related to insurance, as these people ended up on InsureMe’s web site after typing them. However, there were outliers, such as
urine smells like onions
my baby won’t stop crying
how you know if you have cancer
training to make more money
And to these inquiries there are almost always answers on the internet. Recently I asked the internet about the meaning of life since it’s a quandary many ponder. And apparently Google possesses the answer, or rather ten pages of answers, to that question.
So in the spirit of enlightenment, here are some of the links that attempt to answer the core question of life.
Wikipedia’s entry on this question is first and probably most thorough.
If you’re short on time and prefer to simplify it a bit with sound bites from history's great thinkers, then I’d recommend Meanings of Life, a web site dedicated to just that.
And here is the answer summed up in just one sentence.
This is really just a way to illustrate the internet’s enormity and its ability to bring people solutions. If you haven’t already, it’s time to take notice of the internet’s capacity to transform your business. And if you have, take another look.
Photo credit: Lanet-vi program of I. Alvarez-Hamelin et al.
