Panel interview conducted by Safa Rashtchy, Moderator at Web 2.0 Summit: Thank you. It is great to be here again, this conference is a great honor to join in. I really enjoy this because I am a true believer. I have two major principles: One is, don’t write it down, and the second one is, ask the customer. And it’s really in this light we’re doing these panels, to actually go to the users and ask them. Since we don’t have a lot of time we’re not going to talk a lot about our philosophy. We asked five younger people from their teens to 20 or so come join us, but also we asked some parents, we wanted to have a mix of younger and adults to tell us how their usage habits defer. So I’m going to ask the panel to introduce themselves. Nick: I’m 15 and I to high school in San Carols. Ryan: I’m a senior at Colemont High School in San Carlos and I do Myspace and Google. Remy: I'm 16, I’m on Myspace, too. Sasha: I’m 19, and a sophomore at U.C. Berkeley, and I like Wikipedia and Facebook. Bernadette: I’m a mother of a 14 year old. Sheena: I’m a pharmacy technician. Stacey: I'm 38, I have two teenagers, I'm an accountant, and I think Myspace monitoring is important. Pamela: I'm an administrator at a hospital in San Francisco. Yasmine: I'm 19, and I go to Holy Names college in Oakland, and I work with first graders. I use Hotmail, Google, and Yahoo! Safa: Everyone here has broadband access, except for Sheena who has dial-up. Pamela, what do you do when you get up in the morning? Pamela: When I get up in the morning I check my email, sometime I check my bank account, online banking, and that’s pretty much it in the morning. Safa: Do you turn on radio, read the newspaper, or go to the computer first? Pamela: I turn on the TV, watch news there, and if something strikes my interest I might go to the computer. I order groceries online, using Safeway and Albertsons. I go to Craigslist, and depending on what I want I might research something on that. For searching I use Google, that’s my main search engine. Safa: How many people in here have Google as their main search engine? Sheena: I use Ask.com. I can put a question in without having to have key words, so if I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for but I have a question, it can come up with different things. Stacey: It’s accidental, I have a toolbar that has Yahoo! and Google next to each other, so it depends on where I put my cursor. My preferred search engine is Google, mostly out of habit. Sheena: I like Google for maps, I like Yahoo! for people, phone numbers, information on how to find addresses, those types of things that come really easily, whereas Google you can put in a keyword, but Yahoo! is better for people, addresses and places. Sasha: On Google you can do Google Earth too, if you know about that. Remy: I use Yahoo! instead of Google because our school only wants us to use Google, and there might be a few different sites, but the main thing is Google. Safa: Those of who who are using Yahoo!, are you using it less now or more or about the same amount as a year ago? Remy: More, because of the games, it’s the only thing my school doesn’t block out. Safa: Any other search engines you've heard of? Bernadette: I know MSN has a search engine but I only go when I want to use the news. Safa: Everyone knows AOL has a search engine? No? Okay. Let’s move on from search to video. And I want to stay with the adults. Do you watch any movies or TV clips or any video online and if so, where? Sheena: YouTube is it. In an average day? In a week I’d say three hours. Myspace has video and that’s really popular but you can research old TV programs and just really bizarre stuff on YouTube. Ryan: Me and my friends go to the library after school and just watch music videos and funny stuff they post on the main page of YouTube for two or three hours a day. Safa: What did you do before YouTube with those three hours? Ryan: We didn’t really watch videos before that online. Pamela: I didn’t know about YouTube. Bernadette: I've heard of YouTube but I don't use it. Safa: Where else do you go to watch TV? Ryan: Google Video. Sasha: Download it, not legally I guess, Shakespeare for Macs or DC++ for PC, where if you’re on the school network, you log in and you can download from other users. Safa: Your school has a system where you can download things actually? Nice school. Sheena: I go to KRON 4 and I watch the news and also on ABC, I’ve watched shows I’ve missed like “Lost” and things like that. Safa: Do any of you pay to download or watch anything online? Would you pay a buck to watch an episode of “Lost.” Most of you say yes. Sasha: I have before on iTunes. Bernadette: I wouldn’t do that, I pay too much for cable. Safa: how about if it’s free and you have to watch an ad beforehand? Brenda: No. Sasha: On ABC they do have it so if you miss a show, you can watch a full show with some commercials, it’s better than downloading. Safa: Let’s switch back to the kids. Nick: I use YouTube for BMX videos. Also I go to Google Video. I don’t go to Yahoo! Video. I don’t download anything, but it’s not my computer, so I don’t have the right to do that I guess. If I had my own computer I would download. Safa: I’m going to list off some names of websites and I want you tell me which ones you know and if you like it or use it. Sykype? Just two people. Sasha, you use it? Sasha: When I was abroad, it was a lot cheaper to use it to talk to people back home. Stacey: I keep trying to use it, we have a friend in China we try to use it with but it rarely works, just sound quality and that sort of thing. Safa: Stacey, how long have you been on the Internet? Stacey: I’ve had a PC for seven or eight years. I’ve been on the Internet since dial-up came out, I would sneak on it at work just to see what it was about, but actively probably five years. Safa: Craigslist? Everyone here likes it. Yelp? No. Tripadvisor? No one? Trudyslist? No. Blogs? Everyone knows what a blog is now. How many read one regularly? Where do you read it? Nick: Myspace and on UltimateGuitar, too. I write one when I’m trying to learn new stuff on my guitar. Safa: Who else reads blogs? Stacey: Mainly Myspace and photography websites all the time. I write too. Bernadette: I read them on Myspace. Safa: What’s uploading? Ryan: Where you can put stuff on the Internet. Safa: Who has uploaded anything? Only Sheena. Sheena: I have uploaded pictures to Yahoo! and also on AOL to share with others and for storage. Safa: How do you print them? Sheena: I print them at home. Safa: Other people? Almost everyone prints at home? What about Shutterfly or any online services? Nobody? Let’s talk about your opinions on companies and what services they have, if they’re cool or useful for you, however you feel about them. Let’s talk about Yahoo! I’m going to ask everyone but please try not to be impacted by what other person says. Pamela: I think it’s great. Horoscopes, News, Finance sometimes. Safa: Everyone uses Yahoo! Mail. And some of you use Gmail, mostly the young folks. Anybody have anything else to say about Yahoo!? Do you use Yahoo! Groups of Yahoo! 360 Stacey: To me Yahoo! is a trusted name, it’s been around a long time, it has Mail, News, Search, uploading photos, storing photos, it's linked to my SBC Global account, so I get a large email box. Remy: Yahoo is silly. It’s more like on the fun side, like my play e-mail where I send pictures for Myspace. It’s not serious for business and stuff like that. Bernadette: It has the best games for my daughter, they're easy to play and educational. Yasmine: I like it because it has “launch music” and videos and games and I can see my e-mail before I check it and I can read the headlines. Sasha: I used to use it five years ago or so since then I’ve switched to Google and I wouldn’t really go back. Safa: How do you feel about Google as a company? Ryan: it seems more like a friend. I use the Gmail, it’s easy, user-friendly. Nick: I like Google Video, it’s easy to use. I like them as a company, it’s big, so you can talk about it with your friends. Safa: Which company would you trust more? The young people say Google, and the adults tend towards Yahoo! Bernadette: I only use Yahoo! as a last resort, Google is my preferred search engine. Safa: What about Microsoft? Nick: I like the Xbox. That's it. Sasha: I like Microsoft Office and Word. Bernadette: I like the little characters, the lady with the car. Yasmine: I still haven’t seen their search engine. Safa: What about Overstock.com? Yasmine: Who? Bernadette: I like their shoes, I buy lots of shoes from them. Safa: How much do you buy online and where? Bernadette: I generally go online to search the stores and if I can avoid paying shipping I’ll just go to the store to get it. I used to use eBay. Remy: I use eBay for concert tickets. Sheena: I like to look on there, to go antique shopping, and when I go on eBay I can find what it’s actually selling for and what it’s worth, and find information on the product. Sasha: I like to sell my college books on Ebay. We get screwed over on the prices colleges offer. If you sell it back to the school you’ll get 40% and on eBay you get a lot more. Safa: What about Amazon? Sheena: I buy books, CDs, those kinds of things. Ryan: CDs on Amazon. Safa: For tennis shoes, where would you go? Ryan: Footlocker, Vans.com, something like that. Safa: What if you want to buy something and don’t know where to buy it from? Most of you say you'd use Google, or another search engine? What about any shopping comparison sites? Pamela: I use MySimon. Safa: Let's talk about instant messaging for the younger people. Remy: I used to use AOL, but I don’t have it anymore. Ryan: I use it all day and leave it on, AIM to talk to my friends. Nick: I use AIM to talk to my friends, too. Yasmine: I use all three; AIM, Yahoo!, and MSN. Sasha: I use AIM. Safa: What about GoogleTalk? Yasmin: They keep making stuff I’ve never heard of. Safa: Do you talk, share files? Ryan: I talk and send my friends music videos and pictures. Safa: How much time do you spend on IM? Overall? Nick: Actually talking, probably two or three hours a day. Sasha: Skype, I just got an included video camera, rather than that I’ve been using that to talk to people. You can send files and whatever you want and it’s actually really fast now. Yasmin: I say an hour a day and mostly through AIM, I make my friend download music through LimeWire and then make her send it to me so I don’t have to. And Yahoo! is just talking, MSN too. Safa: Let’s go to Myspace. Yasmine: Woo! Safa: Let me see, one of you, Ryan, you describe Misplace as... Ryan: Myspace is like on Christmas morning when you go downstairs and there’s the presents under the tree, because when I sign on I see I have a new message or new friend request or comment, it’s like “ta-da!” I’m so happy I can’t wait to see who it is or what it is. Safa: Everyone but Sheena and Pamela has a Myspace page. Bernadette: I recently started because my son told me I wasn’t with it so he showed me how to get a page. I also realized my 14 year old son is 17 on Myspace. Remy: My mom tells me to get off because it’s so time consuming and fixing it up so you have the background and pictures so all your friends will be like “I like your Myspace, it’s nice.” It's not an everyday thing, but I spend two to three hours on Misplace when I do get on. Ryan: About three hours a day, I leave it on, minimize and pop it up to check on it. Nick: Yeah, two to three hours a day. Safa: I'm wondering how many of you guys actually read books online, read anything in print? Ryan: I read the little shortened chapters to the books, I don’t actually read the books, yeah., Cliffnotes. Day before it’s due. Safa: If you could add one product or service to the internet that would help your day-to-day life what would it be? Yasmine: If I go on for an hour I should get paid five dollars. Bernadette: Better people finders. It will send you to a website where you have to pay, and I'd rather do it free. Pamela: Security is a big deal for me, not only for my kids but also banking security is a huge issue and so is spam. And actually I’ve been a victim of identity theft online so it's an even a bigger issue. Safa: What is your browser choice? Nick: Firefox for more security, firewalls, and news updates and change the skin. Ryan: IE. My mom uses Firefox, but I don’t like it, she set the cookies weird and I don’t know how to use it. Remy: IE, all I use. Sasha: Firefox. Bernadette: IE. Sheena: Opera instead of Firefox, too many problems. Stacey: Firefox. Pamela: IE. Yasmin: IE. Q: Can you put some seniors on the panel next year, too? What amount of time do you spend online with other people in e-mail versus IM versus cell phones? Yasmin: I use my cell phone every day all day I text in class. And for Internet e-mail usually open all the time because I get distracted and go elsewhere and I come back and that’s an all day thing. Sheena: I use cell phone to text to e-mails and I also receive e-mails from my children on my phone but I talk on the phone every day, I use it for hours, but I use the computer just as much. I spend more time with e-mail than IM because I don’t have that many people to IM. Bernadette: I use my e-mail at work when I’m in front of the computer. I use text because I don’t have free calls until after 9:00 p.m. so I text and that’s generally free. Usually it’s e-mail and then once my minutes are available I call. Pamela: I have a sidekick, so I e-mail the kids, browse the web on my phone, all the time. Q: Do yo use the Internet to read news? I don’t mean to just check what's happening, but actually read longer articles? Same way you would you'd read a magazine? Ryan: On AOL when you first sign on they have the top stories or ABC.com if I’m doing research or something. Sasha; I have widgets with BBC and it goes through headlines and my weather. If I want to read the full article and it goes straight to the page. Bernadette: I read the news online so I get a good laugh when I get a call asking me if I want to subscribe to the newspaper. Q: As far as online advertising, which advertisements do you recall and were compelling and have you ever clicked on one? What's the last advertisement you saw? Nick: the squeeze the baby one, the little games, it gets you to click on it, I think it's TravelFusion. Sasha: Netflix. Yasmin: People for the Yahoo! personals, that sort of stuff.

My answer is a lot shorter. the internet has opened the world to people who cannot see or hear it. the internet is capable of answering just about any question. these are the good points. The internet has been the cause of many divorces. pornography being the main culprit. and, the internet has also been the cause of many divorces, because of discovered chat room conversations between married people. the internet has also been the culprit for many a theft identity by criminal hackers. The internet was originally invented as a service. it has turned out to be the devil.