I Learned About the Internet Yesterday

I thought I knew about the Internet but now I know I didn't really get it.  Which is pretty remarkable because I work for Google, am 36 years old (37 in two days), and have followed technology pretty closely.  I'm also a medium adopter, an investor in a Web 2.0 start up, and generally consider myself to be fairly in-the-know on this stuff.  I guess I have to play the, "but I'm only in HR" card to let myself off the hook (not too many times I can use that actually).

But today, I'm different than I was yesterday, because I experienced the reach of the Internet in a unique and very personal way.  One of my guest posts on Brazen Careerist got picked up on Wired.com, and then over to Valleywag, and then InformationWeek, and onwards around the Internet.  The number of hits to this blog, and to the Brazen Careerist site were substantial given the traffic patterns that developed.  Now, intellectually, I know all about the reach of the Internet and how it truly creates a World Wide Web, the theory behind The Long Tail, yada yada yada.  It was just so...mind-boggling... to see it happen, hour by hour, with the traffic counters spinning up and all.  When you are involved in it personally, it gives you a whole new appreciation for the power of the Internet.  I'm sure many other bloggers have experienced this sort of spike in traffic, but until it happens, I think it's hard to appreciate.  For example, here's a reference to that post in German.

So all of this is good and well, and there's a 'cool factor' to having something you created spread around the world and having others read it (although being called a douche by Valleywag readers was ...er...odd) but what is amazing is the personal connections it created.  I had authentic, very human interactions with people I may never meet that either commented or email me or generally connected with me.   

Blogging is such... a remarkable thing.   Ironically today it has left me at a significant loss for words.

I guess it's like this: Sometimes you hear about things that are big, and you see them and see that they are big, you rationally understand that they are big, but you don't really understand that they are big until you experience them.   

That's what happened when I learned about the Internet yesterday.

 

Comments

[Wendy]

Cool story. What I also find intriguing about it is that you would not likely have achieved that level of readership and connections without a certain level of -- what's the phrase -- crutial, internet-based, references, which you have built yourself through your blog, your personal network and your job.

What I mean is that thousands of people know that Penelope / Brazen Careerist is a legitimate and reliable source of information. They also know from her validation that you have indeed worked for Microsoft, Starbucks and Google, giving you further credibility. So, people felt safe spreading the link to your writing on very widely read, serious websites. There's a lot of crap on the web, as well as good, quality information.

This post connects well to your point on the Brazen Careerist today on how valuable a blog can be for your career.

I don't have anywhere near the readership of you or Penelope (at best 100 people a day, usually half that) and yet some cool connections have come from it. People I admire and respect have contacted me -- instead of me going to them (which I might have been too afraid to do). That's cool.

[AjiNIMC]

Bulls eye, many talk of the Internet experience but the true one leaves a deep mark. I remember few such occasions where an article over flooded our inbox with queries and appreciations.

Good to see you using google analytics, I was about to recommend you the same :). Keep watching the google analytics for Internet surprises every week.

I also quoted the last sentence from this post for my blog post, "Web an opportunity today or a threat tomorrow, choice is yours"(idealwebtools.com/blog/web-swot/).

I have also added your blog to the Google's blogger list (www.idealwebtools.com/blog/smartest-dubmest-googlers/).