The Internet is Dead

At least the Internet we thought would rid us of the millions of messages we did not need or want to see is dead.

Seth Godin says it well in his recent post he calls "The New Frontier".

When Google + launched, millions of formerly optimistic people became optimistic again. Maybe this was going to be the one, the social network with just the smart people and none of the lame stuff, none of the spam or the pitches or the people we're trying to avoid.

Spam and its escalating growth has reduced the effectiveness of email. And the challenge for getting acceptable response rates from Pay Per Click advertising has become increasingly challenging.

So the real Internet is beginning to emerge. The shine is wearing off and digital marketing has transformed into what it was all along -- a tremendous rather than a miraculous new medium for peddling our wares.

Clients and their communications partners are now back to do the real work of creating new products, working hard to understand their customers and testing for the best possible return on investment for both the short and long term.