A surprising number of boomers are tech savvy: 80 per cent are on-line. And yes, we carry cell phones and do web searches, etc. Same as our adult and growing children. But here’s the key: we’re usually one round of technology behind. The kids were emailing like crazy on AOL. Now we’re emailing like crazy—on AOL. They moved to Firefox and Hotmail, we’re moving to Firefox and Hotmail. But now they’re onto text messaging. And when they move onto whatever’s next, we’ll probably just be getting up-to-speed on sending and receiving text messages.

This one cycle behind but hurrying to catch up theory mostly applies to boomers whose children are still in the home, by the way, with something of an echo effect for at least awhile. Once the kids leave, we are in danger of falling two or more cycles behind…at least until one of the following: they’re visiting for Thanksgiving and bored enough to take pity on and attempt to rectify our lag-time, and/or first grandchild is born and boomer, him-herself, is highly motivated to catch up. Nothing like seeing gran-baby on webcam and sharing family photos on-line.

In summary: here’s where Cranky gets it wrong. We don’t want a search engine that’s just for us. God forbid we should admit that we need special help: bigger type, fewer choices, pre-screened entries about the subjects of highest interest to us—arthritis and elderhostels. Not us. We want what our kids are using. We may complain that it’s picking up junk, the type is too small, it’s too complicated. But we manage just fine—just like Jeff Taylor—who is, himself, 46-- does.

So, if Jeff Taylor really wants to make the big bucks off boomers in search engine marketing, here’s my advice. He should invest in Google, since chances are our kids are already looking for the next best thing and it will be we boomers who will be cranking up the Google numbers for at least several cycles to come.

Next week: Exposed! Embedded in the name Cranky: ranky--a psycho-social historical critique.

Carol Orsborn