Before the end of the first panel I attended at Jupiter
Communications' @Travel Forum in Miami, I realized how much the
Internet is changing our language. Speakers repeatedly used phrases
in a way that seemed quite natural to them but fell on my ears with
a thud.
Here are a few examples and my best shot at what I think they
mean:
Consideration set -- As far as I can tell, it
means the factors taken into consideration before making an
e-commerce purchase.
Share of Wallet -- I'm used to "share of
market," even to "share of revenue" but "share of wallet" was a
first for me. I assume it means the share of what customers pay for
a particular product or service.
Airline space -- The word "space" is used so
often now in Internet terms that it is spreading to other usages. I
think it all started with references to the "Internet space" as a
place apart from the physical world. Now I gather it is starting to
be used as a synonym for "category" or "example."
Thus the "airline space" apparently means the place where the
airlines operate, figuratively speaking.
There was one phrase used by Richard Davis, who runs Rand
McNally, that I rather liked. He was talking about how companies
adapting to the Internet do it too slowly and should be much
bolder. He said companies need to wipe out "creeping
incrementalism."
That's not likely to be a household term because it isn't easy
to say but I agree with his point. Companies already operating in
the physical world (pardon me, the physical "space") tend to begin
their Web lives by adding incrementally to what they already do
rather than setting out with a new proposition.
Somewhere along the way, they discover that "creeping
incrementalism" is the wrong idea and they throw out the first
iteration and start again, viewing the Web as if they were starting
a new business, which they are.
One phrase that I heard over and over again on the first morning
at the conference is a keeper and that's "broadband," the term that
describes the technology that allows faster delivery of content on
the Web as well as the use of audio and video and enhanced
interactivity.
Most of the speakers saw broadband as the breakthrough that
would move the Internet to the next stage where it will become an
even more powerful medium both for information and
entertainment.
One speaker, Rich Barton, the head of Expedia.com, said that
since he's gotten a cable modem, he's changed his mind as to
whether the Web would ever be an entertainment medium rather than
just an information medium.
He now believes that with faster speed and enhanced graphics and
interactivity, the Web indeed is an entertainment medium.