It's a Small Net After All: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"I want to download the Internet. Do I need a bigger hard disk?"''}}

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Another is that TV shows never seem to really grasp just how ''big'' the Internet is.

One example of this is that [[Google]] comes off as a [[Magical Database]]: on the first try with a search engine, you will either get all the relevant documents and no irrelevant ones, or you will get a canonical response that the thing you're looking for does not exist on the Internet. Never has someone typed something in and gotten ten billion mostly irrelevant hits (well, almost ~~never -- see~~ examples). And one false click never buries you in a quicksand pit of [[The Internet Is for Porn|porn popups]].

One example of this is that [[Google]] comes off as a [[Magical Database]]: on the first try with a search engine, you will either get all the relevant documents and no irrelevant ones, or you will get a canonical response that the thing you're looking for does not exist on the Internet. Never has someone typed something in and gotten ten billion mostly irrelevant hits (well, almost never—see examples). And one false click never buries you in a quicksand pit of [[The Internet Is for Porn|porn popups]].

Another is that there is exactly one instant messaging service. And everyone is a subscriber. And everyone knows everyone else's handle. You can message anyone you want at any time without having to install new software, subscribe to a new service, or even search for their screen name.

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*** In the 90's, [[Phish]]'s bassist Mike Gordon logged into a Phish chat room on AOL under the nick "FakeMike". People would ask him questions like, "If you are Mike, what are the chords to 'Bathtub Gin?'" or something but he had a mental block and couldn't think of any of the right answers.

* An episode of ''[[CSI: Miami]]'', "Urban Hellraisers", had a rare example of this that ''inconveniences'' the characters: the team is unable to get the details of the plot of a [[Fictional Counterpart|GTA-alike]] from its developer, and therefore has to resort to playing the game themselves to work out the storyline that a group of criminals is re-enacting. It seems that walkthrough sites don't exist on the CSI-universe Internet. Similarly, [[Pac-Man Fever|there's no such thing]] as a [[Save Point]] or [[Check Point]], since they had to start the game over from the beginning every time they lost.

** A similar event happens in a ''[[Law and Order SVU]]'' episode, where two ~~detectives -- and~~ later their ~~captain -- play~~ a game enjoyed by a reclusive child who is also a murder suspect. Though, to be fair, they did seem to be playing it because they actually enjoyed the game.

** A similar event happens in a ''[[Law and Order SVU]]'' episode, where two detectives—and later their captain—play a game enjoyed by a reclusive child who is also a murder suspect. Though, to be fair, they did seem to be playing it because they actually enjoyed the game.

*** Further justified because they wanted to be able to bond with the suspect through the one thing that they knew he had an emotional connection to (the boy was mildly retarded, and was a suspect because he attempted to use a spell from the game on the victim (he was actually trying to ressurect her)) and walkthrough info would not neccessarily given that to them.

* An episode of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' shows a Google search for "Sacremende" generating no results, not even a typo. Careful examination of the frame reveals an unprintable character inserted after the word to force this result.

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** Played straight in the first-season episode "I Robot, You Jane" when Buffy consults a computer geek who informs her that anytime you have an e-mail address to start from, "you can pull up someone's profile based on their user name." Although this may have been slightly more likely to be true in 1997 than it is today.

*** And actually more likely now, thanks to all the facebooks and stuff. Using e-mail instead of username also appears to be gaining on popularity (with or without another screen name). The Internet changes quickly.

* "Rose", the first episode of the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' revival, averts this to some ~~extent -- when~~ she searches the Net for "The Doctor", of course all it brings up are medical sites. ("Doctor blue box" is apparently specific enough, though.) This search in real life will result in results for the series.

* "Rose", the first episode of the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' revival, averts this to some extent—when she searches the Net for "The Doctor", of course all it brings up are medical sites. ("Doctor blue box" is apparently specific enough, though.) This search in real life will result in results for the series.

** In the same season, a Dalek, in the span of about two minutes at most, downloads the entire internet through a single [[Computer Equals Monitor|computer monitor]] it just smashed its plunger into. Equally implausibly, it drains power from the entire West Coast of the United States through that same broken monitor.

* ''[[Torchwood]]'' already features a ''lot'' of [[Hollywood Hacking]], but notably has one very silly example in the middle of an otherwise extremely serious and tense encounter with a demon:

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* When the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' villains [[Dark Action Girl|Shego]] and [[Minion with an F In Evil|Señor Senior Jr]]. searched for something really valuable and heavily guarded, Junior suggested that they would search the Internet for the words "really valuable" and "heavily guarded." It worked. [[Strange Minds Think Alike|For Ron, too]].

** Searching Google for "really valuable" and "heavily guarded" returns that particular episode. Apparently, fans have looked those terms up so many times, it's at the top of the list of suggested searches if you type in so much as "really va".

* In one [[Darker and Edgier|"Red Sky"]] episode of the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|original Ninja Turtles]], April does a quick Internet search for Landor and Merrik, two time-travelling allies from twenty years into the future, and finds that their present day counterparts are a couple of local kids. Somehow she does this with just their first names and no other ~~info--although~~ the names "Landor" and "Merrik" [[Aerith and Bob|ARE a bit unusual]]...

* In one [[Darker and Edgier|"Red Sky"]] episode of the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|original Ninja Turtles]], April does a quick Internet search for Landor and Merrik, two time-travelling allies from twenty years into the future, and finds that their present day counterparts are a couple of local kids. Somehow she does this with just their first names and no other info—although the names "Landor" and "Merrik" [[Aerith and Bob|ARE a bit unusual]]...

== Real Life ==

* The standard fictional search engine used on British TV is [http://www.search-wise.net Search-Wise.net], which you can visit, but can't actually ~~use -- this~~ may be connected to the [[555]]-equivalent in the ''[[British Postal and Telephone System]]''.

* The standard fictional search engine used on British TV is [http://www.search-wise.net Search-Wise.net], which you can visit, but can't actually use—this may be connected to the [[555]]-equivalent in the ''[[British Postal and Telephone System]]''.

* In Mexico, ''everybody'' uses MSN Hotmail, MSN Spaces, and MSN Messenger. AIM, ICQ and Jabber are almost unheard of, Gmail is pretty much reserved to computer geeks, and Myspace is usually used by amateur bands (Facebook is gaining popularity too).

** Same thing in the Middle East, except replace "MSN Spaces" with Facebook, and Gmail is becoming fairly popular recently.

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** In Russia everyone except rebellious geeks uses ICQ. Even though various Jabber flavors like Gmail are growing popular, ICQ is still the default way of doing IM.

** Brazilians love MSN (in no small part due to the fact that many people bought their first computers after Windows XP - which shipped with MSN Messenger - came out) and Orkut, and are discovering love for Facebook.

* Take any case of someone famous, usually someone older and [[The New Rock and Roll|slightly befuddled by new media and particularly social networking]], who is shocked, shocked! to find that people can and will impersonate them on sites like [[Twitter]] and [[Facebook]]. Boston talk-radio host [[wikipedia:Jay Severin|Jay Severin]] recently discovered that, as with pretty much anybody with a visible position in media or entertainment, some fake accounts had been created under his name. Apparently he was unaware that this was even possible, judging by his urgent tone as he explained to listeners that ~~someone -- who~~ was not him! -- had actually ''typed his name into a profile'' and even ''found a picture of him online to go with the account''. What do they ~~think -- that~~ when you create a Facebook account somebody comes to your house with something for you to sign?

* Take any case of someone famous, usually someone older and [[The New Rock and Roll|slightly befuddled by new media and particularly social networking]], who is shocked, shocked! to find that people can and will impersonate them on sites like [[Twitter]] and [[Facebook]]. Boston talk-radio host [[wikipedia:Jay Severin|Jay Severin]] recently discovered that, as with pretty much anybody with a visible position in media or entertainment, some fake accounts had been created under his name. Apparently he was unaware that this was even possible, judging by his urgent tone as he explained to listeners that someone—who was not him! -- had actually ''typed his name into a profile'' and even ''found a picture of him online to go with the account''. What do they think—that when you create a Facebook account somebody comes to your house with something for you to sign?

** ''[[Wiretap]]'': Jonathan Goldstein told a story about how, when he signed up for Twitter, he eventually found that someone else was claiming to be him... and because the impostor's account was more interesting, he had more followers than the real Jonathan Goldstein.

** [[Margaret Atwood]] joined Twitter and discovered that there were already two people on Twitter pretending to be her. As she put it, "This grew; I gave commands; then [[Never Mess with Granny|all other Margaret Atwoods stopped together]]." This is a reference to My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. She later affectionately referred to her followers on Twitter as being like "33,000 precocious grandchildren."