Sunday, March 09, 2008

What the Internet Is Missing

It's missing ads. No, not electronic ads, but the print ads which will be indispensable for social historians of the future. I say this because yesterday the Post ran a full page ad which I'd like to link to, but I can't.

Instead I'll link to the website--LifeLock, which is an identity protection service.

The service itself, LifeLock, appears to be consolidating a number of things you can do for yourself, requesting free credit reports, taking your name off junk mailing lists, etc. You aren't paying for a magic formula, you're paying for convenience. Is it a good deal--damn if I know, might be, particularly for someone with paranoid tendencies who simultaneously is willing to trust someone to guard their identity.

But what it does have is a great gimmick--the founder puts his social security number in the ad. It's a great example of what used to be called "eating your own dogfood" (I think that was it--anyway the idea is, when you're developing an IT system, the big test of its usefulness is whether its developers use it themselves. Sort of like Congress--if they come up with a new health care system, do they scrap their own current system and switch to the new one.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very informative blog and especially the post which is my concerns. It is about the lifelock and identity theft and its protection. Grea!, if you measure the id theft industry in North America by volume and then compare the stolen money of Todd it will prove that it is working. However, it is very great post and very valuable comments I been reading. However if you want to read more about the identity theft in North America, please visit. http://www.identitytheftprotectionlock.com/. I thought to share it with you