If there is any better demonstration for the lack of computer knowledge as the comments on this ReadWrite Web article, I don’t know what is. Here’s the short story: this article shows up high in searches. Users apparently enter Facebook in the address bar of their browser, click on this page, and can’t figure out how to log in.
I feel like I’ve had a crusade against Apple for the past year regarding Safari and web sites. I’ve insisted that web apps should be using the browser instead of an application, reformatting for the smaller screen rather than creating an app for their site.
Apparently, I’m wrong.
This may be the most instructive lesson in how people use web sites in the history of the web. Apparently we do need apps for that as users clearly don’t understand what a web site is, how you access it, and what it represents. Apparently, the browser is a power user feature.
I can’t help but wonder if telephones got off to such a rocky start, too.
Even though I’m a big believer in the mobile web, I’m starting to realize that it may be necessary to build apps in Titanium or PhoneGap until habits change.
I seem to recall that Tim Berners-Lee originally intended that the web user would never see URLs. Interesting that people ended using the web as if they didn’t see them.