The media`s three "Ss", sex and scandal sell, can still be relied upon even for an innocent information technology orientated Internet publication such as ITWeb.
It is not necessarily the hard core stuff or sites displaying the wilder side of life that attracts so much attention, but rather those bits of news that involve ordinary people or organisations.
If one types "sex" into the ITWeb search engine, a number of stories appear that all have been quite popular among readers, but in reality have very little to do with the subject.
Paul Vecchiatto, Managing editor, ZAFinance
For instance, a small story run on ITWeb last week, Naked Egyptians jailed attracted a huge number of hits. It detailed a crackdown on Internet nudity in the Land of the Pharaohs. A couple decided to pass the time away by posting naked pictures of themselves on the Internet and this was just too much for Egyptian officials.
Switching to the scandal side of things, another popular story was about the tiff between Internet Solutions and UUNET over an e-mail sent capitalising on the latter`s connection to the troubled WorldCom.
The point is that neither of these stories are really big or important in the greater scheme of things, but they are newsy in that they have a certain juicy element that appeals to basic human nature. And they attracted lots of hits.
If one types "sex" into the ITWeb search engine, a number of stories appear that all have been quite popular among readers, but in reality have very little to do with the subject. Apart from the unclothed Egyptians, the next headline is Business Unusual sponsors BUGs , a rather nice little story about the sponsorship of an all-girl adventure racing team.
This obviously set some minds racing although one has to wonder why as, apart from the possibility of them wearing spandex cycling shorts (the story doesn`t even mention this), there is very little to stir the seedy part of one`s imagination.
An obvious headline for those seeking a cheap thrill was Porn spam on the rise, but they must have been rather disappointed as it is rather boring. All the story says is that porn spam had increased by 100% to represent 8% of all unsolicited e-mails - ho hum.
South Africans look for work more than sex is certainly a headline that boggles the mind. It delivers a slap in the face for all those highly tuned guys and girls who would rather have it that they can`t get enough. However, the story is rather sad as it illustrates the economic plight of many rather than their favourite pastime.
In my ITWeb search for "sex", I came across this: F:itwebsectionscopyright.asp. It is essentially an ITWeb copyright disclaimer and description of the readership base. Why it appeared in the search, I have no idea.
Now here is may favourite headline of the search: Practice safe shopping online, says Virtual Card Services. This really gets into the sex sells and brings in an extra S for shopping. It reminds me of the incident I had when buying a Nando`s chicken last weekend and finding several condoms inside the box. I know, there is a big AIDS awareness programme on but, believe me, that chicken was past it.
Finally an admission. This column was written with the brazen objective of getting the word sex into the headline and increasing the number of hits to my name.
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