Desperation, particularly that of the pecuniary flavor, can compel people to odd behavior. It can even provoke irresponsible and uncharacteristic acts of sanity. A perfect example of this phenomena is the recent announcement of CompuServe's intention to aggregate and sanction a distinct community of porn hustlers and consumers out of the hitherto disparate skin forums on their service. In the name of traffic. And cash. And, of course, widespread user demand.
CDA rhetoric notwithstanding, porn has always been an online favorite - the Web's killer app, even. It's almost inconceivable to imagine otherwise. What other HTTP-friendly media delivers so much bang for so little K? For some time now, it's been common knowledge that the most popular search term on any engine is invariably "sex." One could view this engorged mass of queries as evidence of the average nethead's blanket deviance, but it may point to an even simpler truth: Porn is the Internet's ultimate proof-of-concept, the most direct evidence that this thing works.
The successful Web services of the future - whether they be city directories, company listings, online catalogs, whatever - will share one essential characteristic: They'll help you avoid face- or voice-time with strangers. Anybody can walk into Barnes & Noble and special order something, but why bother spelling authors' names and hovering over clerks when you could do the same quicker and less awkwardly at Amazon.com? Similarly, anyone who doesn't own a walk-in closet full of trench coats would prefer good-natured point-and-click smut-mongering to the crowded 7-Eleven cashier line. If you wanted to prove the functionality of the Internet to a skeptical 18-year-old in five minutes or less, where would you go? Net Surf? Or Hustler?
Unverified reports suggest billings from digital adult services will more than double that of ad revenue this year. At the moment, ignoring this unequivocal demand is a luxury only available to the market leaders, but even they will likely fold in time. Moralists might lament the smut glut as the fall of the empire, but those of us with long memories will never be shocked. The programs most animal, instinctive, and obvious prevail on every other media. On the Net, the extremes are simply less obscured. Whatever clicks, clicks. Is it really so strange?
This article appeared originally in HotWired.
