So, You Think Economics are Complicated?

Reading some of the recent Kelsey Group blogs reinforces this concern. Companies declare strong earnings but plummet because their guidance does not meet Wall Street expectations. Yahoo! and Google are offering evermore sophisticated search opportunities, and only industry experts can figure out how to take advantage of the new services. You wonder whether these behemoths are adding new applications for users or for Wall Street.

At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney, I believe the majority of cellphone users in the U.S. are stumped by their inherent complexity and only use a few of the phone's capabilities. The same is true for computers and most of what Mossberg talks about in his WSJ technology column every Thursday.

In order for local search to really take off, both consumers and advertisers have to understand the economic benefit of changing what they are doing today to buy or sell products and services. Every consumer and business can have access to super-fast broadband, but if the economic benefit is not clear, the concept will take a long time to catch on. It seems to me that the technology is racing way ahead of understanding and ease of use. The stock market seems to reward potential more than reality.

No wonder people have such a poor understanding of basic economics.