Comments on: Do Older People Really Need Separate Internet Sites?

By: scott colboy

scott colboy — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 22:17:24 +0000

I Gone through the website It will have information about health and Fitness I really impressed the information provided to us and I believe it will give more information to every user who wants to search for health and fitness.

By: ahoving

ahoving — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:04:25 +0000

I’m after the same niche with my http://www.prunesoda.com

By: JoAnna Levenglick

JoAnna Levenglick — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 03:43:44 +0000

I tend to agree with the folks who find the name rather offensive. I think it is better to be positive, rather than negative in anything you do. How many people over 50 are Cranky?? But the name is very easy to remember and the logo is a bit creative, so it does work from a marketing point of view. After just launching a site created for women over 40 called; http://www.sexysassysmart.tv
we are telling women to defy age and never let age get in the way. This is a very focused group who we are reaching out to; however I think that many people younger than 40 and even men will enjoy it. The site was created to have a comfort zone for women to be entertained, enlightened and even informed about topics in their world. It is to teach women to defy age. The point is the many of these people were the first to see television, and now this same group is the first to see IPTV. Sexysassysmart.tv is all interviews done on video with celebrities and experts in healt, fitness to name a few. It is inappropriate and narrow minded to think because someone is older is not interested in technology.
I have a friend whose mom goes online to Comedy Central to read about Stephen Colbert, and she is in her 80’s! There are always exceptions to the rule. The key is to make people aware of what they can accomplish online. I have been a TV producer for almost 20 years and I prefer to be online without a doubt. I find the internet the most fascinating place to be these days, and I think that most people would agree with all of the video that can be seen online, not to mention how easy it is to learn about something by looking it up online. The older 40 plus is the new 30’s, and remember this is the crowd who was marching to the Capitol in protest of the Viet Nam war.

JoAnna Leveglick
Creator, http://www.sexysassysmart.tv

By: gary

gary — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:19:15 +0000

Kevin H, I think you said it just right. I’m over 50 and I enjoy all the interaction I can get with 20 somethings. My college son keeps me on my toes. hahaha

By: JRG

JRG — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:53:12 +0000

Kevin, IMHO!!!!!!! this just goes to show how out of touch you are! I think we are all missing the point. This will not replace Google or yahoo but will be a nice addition to the set. I have used cranky for travel and I found the results to be far more indepth than the regular fodder I receive from google and yahoo. The results shown did not consist of orbitz, expedia, and travelocity but tourism boards and sites where I can find out more about the desired destination.

As for the comment in the chain stating we do not need our own social network how pea brained can people be. Should we all be sheep and follow the heard to MySpace? a place where I get spammed or find no one of interest to interact with! I am 63 and my experiences “are” supremely different than those of a 30yr old, my interest may not be, but that does not mean I want to talk to a 20-something about classic cars!!! how many 20-somethings drove one of the first mustangs? not many i’ll bet!

By: Kevin H

Kevin H — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:49:27 +0000

My parents are 68 and 75. When their PC died last year it was like the world had ended, they simply couldn’t live without it. Within a few days they had a new one with all the data from the old one transferred. Needless to say they don’t need a search engine for oldies!

Older people do not need their own on-line social networks either which preclude people below a certain age. The premise that people over 50 have different interests than people below 50 is absurd.

As an example, I run a self moderated global discussion mail list relating to a particular type of classic car and we have subscribers ranging from about 30 through to 65. It works very well. What’s different about it however, is that the people write well, they don’t use some sort of cut down, bastardised version of the English language that you see on many internet forums, there’s little of no swearing and people are polite to one another, most of the time

As time moves on, sites like Cranky will have even less relevance because the ageing population will be increasingly web savvy. They missed the boat by about 10-15 years!

The future lies in well designed niche sites, IMHO

By: RABWMC

RABWMC — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:38:57 +0000

I’m 55 and I’m internet-savvy enough to make a living developing commercial websites. I can hardly believe the naive condescension of a lot of the posts on this topic. The only reason I can think of that older people would need separate websites would be to escape from the childish self-importance of people under 40 who think they invented intelligence.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:40:01 +0000

I couldn’t disagree more. While both my mother and in-laws can manage to check their email and browse the internet, they are all less than internet savvy. The more hand-holding they receive, the better. They are easily overwhelmed and a site like cranky with focused, concise search results are good for them. I hope they catch on and become popular for the geriatric ‘net set.

By: Eric F

Eric F — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:22:25 +0000

If I was in their target demographic, I personally wouldn’t use the site just because of the name. Seems to be kind of an insult to people over age 50. Maybe it’s suppose to be funny, but I can guarantee my parents would never use a site called that.

I think if anyone had any trouble using “the googles” over age 50, they wouldn’t have any more success using cranky.

By: Dave Barnes

Dave Barnes — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:16:07 +0000

As a member of the target demographic (age=58), my one and only visit to Cranky found it to be useless.
Who funds these truly stupid ideas? Don’t answer. It was a rhetorical question.

,dave

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:59:47 +0000

Isn’t this just simply a piece of PR? cRANKy formed part of the eons site anyway, so it’s not like it’s entirely new, it’s just a spin-off to a stand alone url now.

By: AntiB

AntiB — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:52:00 +0000

I think they hope to attract target auditory with demonstrated extra care. Probably they won’t dominate the world, but will surely get the piece of pie.

By: Undertoad

Undertoad — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:38:00 +0000

I’ve been involved with [url=http://generationsonline.org]Generations on Line[/url], a non-profit site specifically for easing older people into the net. Usability is an entirely different notion where people older than 65 are involved, and requires really special and specific techniques.

By: Amy Wilsch

Amy Wilsch — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:33:01 +0000

There is a big difference between 50 and 85. And those groups vs. even younger groups. I’d work the UI and market to boomers (50-70) differently than I’d market to the over 70 crowd.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:05:26 +0000

I agree with Michael’s thoughts on this.

By: Monster Mash

Monster Mash — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:56:54 +0000

Jeff should stick to DJing. Web 2.0 is quite different than the first go round.
He could use this time to finally get that degree he always said he had.

By: Marcello

Marcello — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:48:28 +0000

As someone who spends an enormous amount of time taking care of elderly parents, I couldn’t be more supportive of the idea of websites designed specifically for older people. Both my parents are mobility impaired, visually impaired, and their mental abilities are deteriorating. Anything that can help them do something as simple as shop online would be an enormous boon for them, and a huge burden lifted off of my shoulders. And yes, that means “dumbing down the internet” for them. Some people might call that condescending, but I’d call it a blessing.

By: Ethan Stock

Ethan Stock — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:35:58 +0000

Mike, I’m surprised that you didn’t mention big.com, http://www.big.com/ which is a service of Snap aimed at older people. I first heard about it from Barney Pell, who told a story at a panel about the user surveys for Snap revealing that a lot of older people used it because the fonts were bigger. This separate brand was the result. I think it’s very reasonable to target and package the internet this way — billion-dollar industries like cars and entertainment media have been quite successful at meeting the very different needs of old and young people. Do we mock Toyota for launching Scion to meet the needs of young hipsters, and Lexus to meet the needs of aging executives? They’re all just Toyotas/ it’s all just the same internet, right?

By: Skid

Skid — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:05:32 +0000

And one more thing: I guess not even a single one of us here at TechCrunch represents the target group of such niche sites like cranky, and I know from lots of user tests that it is much more harder to predict user behaviour of those barely proficient users than you would ever think. Maybe Jeff Taylor did his homework and researched the matter more thoroughly than you or me. I would bet on that.

By: Skid

Skid — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:48:09 +0000

I think search has still a loooong way to go. When we look at Google result, they are not tailored to the needs and interests of the specific user in any way, it is full of spam and in a lot of scenarios take a LOT of effort from the average Joe to accomplish quite simple tasks.on the Internet. Unfortunatelly ALL the major search engines are busy to crank out more and more money out of those little text ads, and improving relevancy is surely not a priority. So when I see someone trying to do something about it I pay respect instead of blowing Google’s sail mindlessly.

By: Chris Moore

Chris Moore — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:51:19 +0000

This seems like it has great niche marketing. Although less 50+ers are online than, say, 16-year-olds, I get the sense that 50+ers are more susceptible to PPC ads than younger generations. I think that Cranky might be on to something.

By: BlueVoter

BlueVoter — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:45:10 +0000

My adult kids call me for tech support with Windoze and MacOS. I also showed them Ubuntu and SuSE, but they don’t use it. In return, they send me music suggestions. I’ve listened to pretty much the same music for 50 years — only the performers have changed.

As for limited search, I have no use for a site that would give me only Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia for travel planning. They would miss Agoda, Octopus Travel, and some of the non-US sites that often have better deals than the big US sites.

So I think that Eons, cRANKy and their like all deserve a trip to the Dead Pool, and I hope that they get there before I do.

By: JRG

JRG — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:30:54 +0000

It seems to me that the majority of the people posting are either too young to know what we want as boomers or have too high of an opinion of themselves! Michael, you completely contradicted yourself in your 2 posts on Eons.com. Which are we older internet users not interested in blogs, or social networks as you stated or are we internet savvy folks who don’t need a new search engine!!!! Get a clue will you guys I expect better! Also whoever stated that there are 5 sponsored links you just showed your arrogance, ineptitude, and ignorance as there are only 2 sponsored links and 4 indepth results including tips, and ratings….

By: Ri

Ri — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:07:00 +0000

Did you try a search??? I tried “China trip” and would much rather get the results cranky gave me than the over 60 million with almost no relevant results on the first pages that Google gave me.

By: SimpleMatchingService.com

SimpleMatchingService.com — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:05:36 +0000

The characteristics of the senior demographic are clearly changing. IMHO this demographic is sophisticated, savvy and flexible. Especially among western boomers, they’re affluent, socially engaged, and have the plenty time (post-retirement) to learn new things. 65 is “middle aged” in my parents crowd; 85 is old enough to take a cab out for dinner instead of driving yourself.