I screw up my face...this is hard work, y'know..."OK, that's it...waddya think, huh?"

"Aren't you forgetting something, dear?" Now it's my turn to chew my lip, "OK...no more guessin' games...shoot!"

"Well, dear heart, what about all those other hundreds of millions of web pages that are just up there as freebies?" And, she waves her hand vaguely inna air, as though pointing to "up". OK, fine, thinks I, people have been publishing all sorts of web pages for years, technical, personal, informational, educational, etc etc...so that's web, right?...information online...accessible, available, open, free...so what's she driving at...?

"Sooooo....yer sayin' then, that..." I tried to sound like I knew answer as I peered at her, over my tented fingertips...

"Look...," Sherry leaned forward and practically speared my knee with her pointed finger,"when was last time you went to K-mart, Coles, Wal-Mart or whatever, and found your neighbor sitting there trying to show you his personal photos, or interest you in his fly-fishing hobby, or sprout on about some other topic...albeit interesting?" I rubbed my knee, looking for blood.

"Huh...that's stoopid, y'know it...the real world doesn't work like that!" I moved my legs outta way as I said that. ;-((

"Exactly! Yet, if he was there, he'd be taking up real-estate...at a price. At a very hefty price, I might add! Riiight?" I nod slowly...but I hadda agree, it made sense. I opened my mouth again, but she was off t'the races now...

"And...if he wasn't paying anything for pleasure of sitting there, just how long would it take for management to ask him politely to leave? Go to some other store that will allow a free lunch, or go to a warehouse where they hold flea-markets, hmmm?"

I frowned at that, "Now, jest a minute, that's bricks-and-mortars world, real concrete y'know...not some electronic sparkles on a hard drive somewhere!" Sherry shakes her head, "So, when did hard drives suddenly become free, eh? Or computers? Or land lines, microwave transmitters, operating systems, programmers...you want me to go on?" I look at her, very hard now.

"So, yer sayin' then that free lunch is over? Everybody pays?"

"You got it!" She goes on, "Look, three years ago, pay-per-click was unheard of...now look at GoTo and a lot of others!" Now, just so that I got it, real clear-like, "So, you reckon that anybody - business and personal - with a web page will soon hafta pay for pleasure of inclusion in a directory or SE?"

Sherry nods and shrugs, "Maybe not directly for starters, and there'll be different fee structures...and, there may be some institutions that still continue to offer free services - some of smaller players, I guess - but in business, you get what you pay for...every time. And search engines are in business of 'selling' search results, make no mistake!"

She spins her chair back to her desk, "One way or another, search engines have got to make whole schmozzle work better...and make a profit." And as click of mouse continues, "So've we!"

The party's over...now we gotta get serious, I guess...sheesh, and I was havin' soooo much fun, too!

I couldn't resist a closing shot, "Sooooo, I reckon Doomsday Bomb for some of SE Dotcoms ain't gonna happen after all, huh...huh?"

Without missing a click, "More like a Boomsday a-comin' for SEs, dear heart...more like a Boomsday!"

Sherry looks at me, back at screen, shrugs, "Well, a pox on that website and all...we ain't gonna buy any books from that place, that's fer sure!" She looks at me again, "And you should be more careful who you deal with..." and stalks off, muttering about "crazies on net."

Hey, waddid I do? ;-[

Anyways, and while we're onna topic of pop-up boxes, if that ain't enough to put me off bein' a good Samaritan, very next day, I'm in a site about internet marketing, affiliate programs, MLM...you know stuff, right? (And, just for record, it wasn't this site, Online-Wealth, OK!) Niiice looking site, well laid out but nothing new for me, so I punch back button to get next site from SE...and then all hell breaks loose.

I tend to dislike pop-up boxes, don't you? Even at best of times, right? OK, lissen carefully, this is how it went: pop-up box is there, I hit 'x' to close (there is no CLOSE button - that shoulda been a clue, huh?), box disappears, but main page reloads as I watch...I hit back button, out pops same box, I hit 'x', pop-up pops off, main page reloads...I hit back button again, up jumps box, I punch 'x' again, box gone, main page reloads again...

What freakin' hey is goin here? So...desperately, viciously, finally, I hit 'x' on box and then top-right 'x' to close browser. Those guys at that website are either incredibly stupid...or they're being stupidly incredible. And maybe very devious, to boot!

So...reluctantly putting aside my first plan of sending zillions of pop-up boxes from my secret spammers mailbox, I get back into site - hey, I ain't scared to go where angels won't - and find an email address, to which I send a (very fast and big) rocket (actually, just about an ICBM!) describing to those turkeys precisely why I think they're script code needs re-working...or maybe even deep-sixing!

What was in pop-up box, you ask? Do you really care? Well, OK, it was another invitation to get a free site review and subscribe to an ezine. Big deal! (Hey, people, I don't need a pop-up box to tantalize me with your stupendous(?) offering...if I wanna subscribe, I'll subscribe...don't try to force me, OK?) Sheesh! ;-(

And, of course, after sending email from site, I got stuck again in pop-up loop before I finally got browser closed...sheesh, some guys never learn, right?

When I related alla this to She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, she says, "Well, dear heart, let that be another lesson to you...you will insist on trying to tell dumb websites where they're goin' wrong. Why bother already?" She glares at me, but I detect a hint of a twinkle...

Until next time...mebbe.