Free Ezine Content Broadband Connection

FLOOR IT! LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!
by Mike Banks Valentine

I am the proud new owner of a cable modem! It's a beautiful little baby with flashing green eyes that indicate an average 500 KBps speed delivered on the same line as my cable TV. This little rocket delivers information faster than my brand new 300 MHz computer can digest it! I've had it for three days and feel as though my work speed has been shifted into hyperdrive!

Now I can download large software in a flash, see streaming video and listen to internet radio while I work. Hoo boy is this something! Broadband can be a shock when dial-up speeds have been your experience. My friends who work at large corporations have been telling me about broadband speeds at MegaCorp, Inc. I've noticed those news stories suggesting more people surf at work.

NOW I understand why it's worth annoying the boss because you've gotta do online shopping during lunch hour! It's simply a matter of being unwilling to wait on that slow connection at home. I will never again chose to live where high speed access is unavailable. Broadband internet connections in every new home and as a part of every home remodeling upgrade will soon be inevitable.

I've noticed that I *expect* the speed now after three short days of having lightning response at my fingertips, I am not willing to wait the thirty to forty-five seconds for a web site to load that I found normal only last week. If a site doesn't load in less than five seconds, I find myself yelling "Come On!" Broadband speeds mean immediate response. Delays in load times are nearly imperceptible. Downloads take only seconds.

This got me thinking on several levels about the expectations of the average surfer. It has become well known among webmasters that you have a very short time to grab the attention of visitors to your site. That means that you must first have a fast loading site -- and only a small percentage of surfers have modem speeds faster than 56k, a small percentage are still at 28,800. This means that the site that takes longer than thirty seconds to load over a 28,800 modem is doomed. Broadband is not yet common.

Once your page loads, you'd best have something good to offer your visitors in the way of content or freebies. Another web standard has become the giving away of free information or useful tools to your visitors in order to keep them on your page long enough to interest them in what you are selling.

I have not had television reception for over eight years now. That's a long story in itself, but suffice it to say that it's nothing short of shocking how television has evolved in that time. I get the cable TV free with my internet cable modem or I would still be without television reception by choice. I admit to being a TV snob. I find it difficult to believe that anybody watches network television for more than news. It makes me nuts to watch movies on broadcast television because I can't pause it or back up when I miss something like I can with videos.

For eight years now I've only seen broadcast television wben visiting friends or staying in hotels while traveling. So now I've tried watching some television again and have noticed that the pace or "speed" of TV has grown dramatically shorter, faster and more fragmented than when I stopped watching it in 1992.

You've got less time to catch anyone's attention in any medium, and as my own experience with the new cable modem proves, it had better be fast, good and worth my fragmented time or I'm just gonna floor it and get outta here!

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