I can't find the reference but I remember reading an article in Wired circa 2000 during the dotcom boom. It was about a couple of guys who owned a diamond busin

I can't find the reference but I remember reading an article in Wired circa 2000 during the dotcom boom. It was about a couple of guys who owned a diamond business in Canada and were lured to Los Angeles to start an online diamond business, ice.com or something. The gist of the article was these guys only lasted 12-18 months and went back to Canada and their original business because they were fed up with the internet and the online business. The one detail of the article I remember was a quote from one of the owners... "The internet is basically a giant direct marketing platform" How to monetize information and what information should be monetized seem like very tough things to determine. From a consumers perspective, I hate adds on websites and employ the various bits of software to block them but I'm not opposed to paying for information. At the moment I don't pay any online subscription fees other than video. I've considered paying for wsj.com but the price point is too high in my opinion. From a strictly UI perspective I agree with the article's sentiment; most of the web is a UI fluster cuck.