Life 2.0 in the fast lane

Spent most of the day in the InnoTech conference in Austin, (thus the shortness of this post). I learned three things there: 1) I need to get a better cellphone, because everyone is texting each other and my phone can’t. 2) I’ve gone without a Twitter account for too long. 3) Users are beginning to expect more speed more quickly.
We’ve talked a bit before about how users aren’t objective – a switch from 200ms response time to 150ms response time is the best thing in the world – a switch from 50ms response time to 100ms response time is frustrating – even though it’s less than 150ms, objectively.
But at InnoTech, the emphasis placed on rich media like video and sound, as well as the expectations of speed elsewhere on the Web may make that a little moot. If a user is used to waiting 15 seconds for a YouTube video, they may not be as willing to wait 30 seconds for a database – SAAS is especially affected by this.
Our expectations are that things are getting faster.