Somebody tell About.com to say 'D'oh!'

Dotcom shoots self in foot with its Americocentrism

Everyone on the Net knows about.com/ -- it ain't great, it ain't bad. We'd all read it more often if it weren't a framed hive of blaring ads.

It has newsletters you can sign up for, no matter which of the world's nations you live in. The trouble is, it is mandatory on the form that you give them your "Zip Code". No zip code, no sub.

Now, as there is one country in the world (read "on the Net") that has zip codes, and probably 190 that don't, isn't this a bit like making it mandatory to fill in the age of your pet kangaroo or the name of your local Reichstag member? Perhaps about.com should make it impossible to subscribe without telling them the name of your monarch, or that of your local arondissement.

If About.com would like to revise their practice so that the vast non-American majority (95%) of humankind can fill in their forms, who knows, they might find a sudden surge in subscriptions. Of course, on the other hand, they can just keep on getting pretend zip codes included in their market research statistics, which I suppose are then passed on to their trusting advertisers.

Tagged: americocentrism, america, usa