1st
Awareness Curve
People commonly apply the adoption curve to explain why they are not using a particular product or service. That they aren’t “early adopters” who are willing to try something new.
In the case of online services on the Web, I would argue that it’s a case of not knowing what is out there. I believe reasonably savvy users would actually want to try new online services of their interests if they knew about it.
A reasonable definition of reasonably savvy users would be those who use web-based emails, read news online, have bought from an online retailer or travel agent, but NOT those who can do HTML programming or necessarily understand RSS feeds.
So when you think about it, the better model for this phenomenon is an awareness curve.
Another way to look at this is customer acquisition vs. retention. Awareness is about acquisition, getting people to know your site. Adoption is about retention, getting them to use your site.
Both are BIG topics for Web 2.0 startups out there.
