In 2002 a Salon.com writer by the name of Mark Simpson introduced the phrase ‘Metrosexual’ into the mainstream while writing an article on British soccer star and tabloid cover boy David Beckham.
Although there are a myriad of definitions, the general consensus is that a metrosexual is a young urban male who is well-groomed, fussy about his diet and appearance, enjoys shopping for clothes and reading fashion magazines, and spends his weekends clubbing and drinking cocktails with wedges of fruit hanging off the side.
Although the phrase is on its way out – women got sick of men who take longer to get ready than they do – the idea that we’re all secretly in love with ourselves and our vanities is a compelling one.
Enter the ‘Technosexual’, a new twist on the metrosexual created by a self-described computer and gadget loving geek by the name of Ricky Montalvo.
The official definition of a technosexual is, according to an article on Alternet.org, "a dandyish narcissist in love with not only himself, but also his urban lifestyle and gadgets; a straight man who is in touch with his feminine side but has fondness for electronics such as cell phones, PDA’s, computers, software, and the web."
That’s not to say that every tech geek is a closet technosexual. This term is not reserved for those 30-year-old hackers living in their parents’ basements, or those guys who stay up all night playing Command and Conquer online. It’s the guy who has every attachment available for his iPod, who records phone numbers on his titanium-cased PDA rather than bar napkins, and carries around a cell phone the size of two fingers that has four games, a camera and plays the opening bars of Beethoven’s fifth when it rings.
Naturally Montalvo’s position is that we should embrace our tech side, and he created a Web site where other technological narcissists can meet, greet and check out the latest styles and gadets – www.technosexual.org.
Search and ye shall find… eventually
Start with the assumption that the vast majority of computer users are basically naïve when it comes to the technology and you’ll never go hungry again.
Most people use Internet search engines to find things on the Web. And most of those people probably believe that all the best links appear on page one of their search results, and start looking at the top of the list.
What they don’t know is that there is no perfect way to conduct a search and that Web search engines look at dozens of different criteria when generating search results. Some engines look at the number of visitors to different sites, and the number of times the words in your search appear on a page. Some engines look into the Internet text and some look in the Internet meta-tags buried in the coding. Some engines match search results to search phrases using a system of probability, putting the highest percentage matches on the top of the list.
Search engines cost money to run, but they’re free to use. In order to make that money back, search engines may accept advertising, or use their traffic to direct users to side businesses that do generate revenue.
Or – and this is common – search engines sell positioning, charging companies a fee to ensure that their name appears at the top of the list with all related searches.
For example, if you’re looking for a recipe for apple pie, you might find that the top results in one search engine is for a book of recipes available at an online bookstore or a department store that sells baking supplies. Look for information on fixing your car and you’ll probably find yourself directed to various auto dealerships and parts dealerships.
When Yahoo! decided last month to ditch Google in favour of its own in-house search engine technology – at the cost of about $2 billion to acquire the right companies – the presentation of their search results also changed.
Although it means more competition – Google accounted for about three out of ever four Web searches in December of 2003 – it also left Yahoo! in a financial hole. As a result, they’ve pumped up advertising, positioning and other efforts to increase revenues.
While Google is slowly doing the same, they don’t allow banners and always separate their paid sponsors from other links, making it easy to see who is paying and who is not. For people who don’t understand how search engines work but are savvy enough to take paid advertisements with a grain of salt, this is a necessary step to ensure that search results aren’t manipulated for economic gains.
The Internet’s appeal is that it allows for the open and free exchange of ideas and that it is essentially a neutral technology – the Internet shows, it doesn’t tell. It doesn’t advocate, judge, rank or file, but is a passive conduit for information supplied by others. That appeal is lost when search results become suspect and you wonder who’s really paying for the free lunch you’re getting.
Although there’s nothing wrong with a company attempting to recoup its investment and make a few bucks, and search engines are still free to use, how many pages of search results is the average person willing to go through to find a site that isn’t sponsored? How hard will it be to find independent sources among all the paid advertisers?
The new Yahoo! search engine works remarkably well, with results that are very close to Google. However it is harder to spot the ads from the other search results.
Of particular concern is Yahoo’s Site Match sponsors. They appear just like any other sites on a search results page, but whenever someone clicks on those sites Yahoo! gets paid by the sponsor.
To ensure that more searches turn up Site Match sites, they are given a more prominent place in Yahoo’s index and will get looked at more often during searches.
Critics say this positioning technique and others like it are nothing more than hidden advertising.
Imagine if someone looking for unbiased medical advice gets directed to a Web site that is paid for by a pharmaceutical company or a company that is pushing a controversial treatment. What if a student researching a school paper gets directed to a site that contains biased information sponsored by a fringe group pushing its own agenda?
Word to the wise when using any search engine – check out as many different results as you can find with the narrowest search terms possible. While you won’t be able to weed out the ads, at least you can put them into perspective.
