The Demise of Rushmore Drive: An Example of Cultural Misunderstanding
Often, sociology and technology meet and we never see it. Other times, it stares us directly in the face. It is when the latter happens that people are forced to think and, often, arrive at the wrong conclusions.
Recently, there was news of the demise of the African-American focused search site, Rushmore Drive. Some question the idea or strategy behind Rushmore Drive. Others would like to believe that the internet is colorblind and race-neutral so, why would anyone want to create something as "divisive" as a black-focused search engine?
Honestly, the latter is what I have heard most about some of the the sites I have launched in the past. To those people, I say that it's not divisive, it's actually inclusive.
You see, in the great mix of the internet, you can find information about just about anything, if you're willing to seek it out. However, sometimes you are looking for specific information about from a particular perspective or about a specific topic, business, product or service. Therefore, some will market to niche audiences.
I'll give a broad example of what I am speaking of here. Here, we have a grocery store chain called Kroger's. Kroger's has a pretty good selection of foods that works for a majority of people. But, say for example that I am a Chinese or Indian immigrant and I am looking for products from my home country or, more specifally, from my home region. Chances are that Kroger might night have everything I am looking for because the products I seek are not being consumed by the majority of people.
This, I believe, is the type of space Rushmore Drive was trying to fill. It was not about segregating. Instead, I was about targeting marketing. I ran a site called black...MYstory for about 8 years. The stories I highlighted often weren't on the front pages of newspapers. It wasn't that I was trying segregate myself or my readers, I was trying to show that black people have an interest in knowing news that highlights the concerns of black people as well. For example, would the case of the Jena Six have turned out as favorably as it did if black bloggers had not raised the profile of this story?
Sites like Rushmore Drive were not even aiming at the controversial. It was, like I said, just looking to capitalize by targeting specific markets as opposed to trying to take on juggernauts like Google or Yahoo.
Sadly, this is a classic case of people misunderstanding that Rushmore Drive was no different from an iVillage, which targets the female consumer or Slashdot, which focuses on the geek community. They were not seeking to leave any group out. Instead, they were just honing in on an audience to maximize the effectiveness of their efforts.
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