Scott-

After having spent only a semester in the print world, and only 20 years in the real world, I think you're dead on. Simplicity matters. Features do not. Brand recognition matters, democracy of ideas less. I talk with my father (tech-savvy compared to some of my friends' parents, but still hasn't taken the time to figure out AIM [he just emails me links instead]) and my mother (new to the tech land, but she knows what she likes) about Web standards and Web 2.0, and my father just retorted by saying "I'm not about to switch my web browser from Explorer to Safari or Mozilla: I use one on a regular basis on my work PC, because it's there and the government makes me use it. When I go to the Mac, I'm still comfortable with the program I know. It doesn't matter if it hasn't been updated in 5 years." And I mention RSS or feeds to my mother (for whom a component of her job is compiling news articles related to the circumpolar region into a weekly email digest) and her eyes glaze over. And from my friend's perspective, I'm an outlier. My best friend came over to work on a design project(he's on the opposite side of the political aisle from me) and first thing out of his mouth is, "You're always reading the news, why don't you take a break and watch Miss America."

To disregard baby boomers is a silly notion. First: they are the largest demographic in America, thanks (or no thanks) to better living through chemistry. Second: they do adapt technology fairly quickly compared to the generation before them. If they don't adapt quickly to something, it's best to assume it's just a buggy product or not simple enough (not that everything has to be simple, but over-complicated doesn't equal quick adaptation). Third: the rest of the world isn't ready for a constant stream of other people's bullshit. Nor are they quite ready for a participatory media: if the US' voter turnout percentages are any indication people only participate in this country if they think their life depends on it.

People do however like to comment within a framework, I've noticed. E.g. letters to the editor, viewer talkback on the 6 o' clock, picking celeb favorites a la Idol or Dancing With The Stars. Give them something with authority, and they'll be happy to tell you they could've done a better job (in the art world we call this "My 3-year-old could've done that" or Chip Kidd: "The Granny Litmus"). Something that I hope pays off when I start a local art web zine.

Sorry for ranting, just going along with my last stereotype.

The funniest part about your post was that you managed to contradict yourself in your own piece of evidence.

Again, since we're being so precise, I'll concede that when I said "that means they are capable of checking their email" I should have also included "perform basic searches."

What got me LOLing in your comment was that you've fallen victim to what is perhaps the most common fallacy I see online -- "websites don't need marketing budgets. why? google didn't." And yet you still managed to prove yourself wrong -- in the very link you provided to support your point.

Take a look at those websites, I won't even venture a guess as to how many of those MSN/AOL hits are just from users who don't know how to set their homepage, but look at those numbers: 3 inferior search engines (Yahoo, MSN, AOL) and google has less than a quarter of the market... I hardly think they've convinced "everyone" or their dog, for that matter (sure, they've convinced the savvy, but I think you may need to get out a bit more before making such sweeping generalizations)

Karl, you're right about the dangers of extrapolating from our own experience -- but we're all representative of some group -- trick is knowing which one and how big it is.

I feel like we're missing a nuance here -- maybe it's that there's three groups:

1. People who are deeply entrenched in Old Media and won't change unless all of it goes out of business.

2. People who either grew up on digital media and/or are thirsty for alternatives (like you), who will adopt early and often.

3. People like my mother, who are somewhat on the fence -- she can be shaken loose from Old Media, but it requires some effort.

I think perhaps you may not know enough Boomers if you think being on "online" is still just limited to checking email. Where do you think these sites are getting all their unique visitors from?

As to VS investment, how much did Google have to advertise to convince everyone and their dog to change how they search online? If you build a solution the REALLY solves people's problems, it will sell itself.

I lumped everyone into two different categories? Funny, I thought you had already done that when you identified (1)"average people" as the group ignored in lieu of (2)the tech-savvy.

I'm sorry for getting fancy with "Joe Sixpacks and technophobes” when what I was really just reiterating your "average people" comment.

As for your mom, she must not ride the same subway as I do every morning, because I’m surrounded by grey-hairs reading WSJs and NYTimes. That’s the danger of extrapolating from such a small sample, I guess. She’s also terribly misguided if she thinks that they’ve also turned off the 6 o’clock news – there are over 27 million viewers who would disagree with her.

Sure, plenty of baby boomers are 'online' now (that means they are capable of checking their email), but if you were a VC, you'd realize how much money it would take in advertising to get enough mindshare to convince them to replace those old habits with new ones. There may be too much money chasing too few good ideas right now, but there isn't that much money or that much lunacy.

I think simplicity is virtue that all generations are attracted to.

One word: iPod.

The balance between how you present information in a manner that is usable - really usable - and quantity of information - is difficult and the subject of a few IA books.

The work of Jesse James Garret comes to mind:
http://www.adaptivepath.com/te...

http://www.jjg.net/ia/

In particular, his elements of user experience:
http://www.jjg.net/elements/

IA rules of thumb apply in many, many different contexts, and I find them especially applicable to Media 2.0 or whatever we are calling it.