The situation I had predicted and feared 15 years ago has eventuated.

I see their share price is now over 600 USD and is now confessingly the largest holding in my US portfolio. Like the parking enforcement company, admittedly bought shares to try and counteract (take the edge off) my moral indignation towards these companies. We collectively keep perhaps unwittingly rewarding bad behaviour as a species (and I include myself in a lot of this) and stuff like this just reinforces that entities engaging in questionable behaviour are rewarded.

Many smaller businesses are also doing away with a website and simply using Facebook as their main and perhaps only “web presence”. Facebook have also been increasingly aggressive and obnoxious in throwing up a login wall while browsing public business pages. This was the situation a decade and a half ago I had feared and was labelled as a scaremonger for even suggesting this would eventuate.

I think I’m done folks, us web traditionalists and Open web advocates have lost the fight on this one. Have been curbing my use of the Internet outside of what is required of my job.