EBay ; the Modern Day WELL

In Fred Turner's, "Where the Counterculture Met the New Economy", Turner discusses how the WELL was a type of online model of what the Whole Earth Catalog had been in the first place. However because the WELL was online it was possible for people to communicate with one another even if they were not in the same place or even country, about different products and what they felt about each of the products. This was extremely similar to what the Whole Earth Cataloghad been except for the fact that now you did not have to purchase the catalogue and were also able to communicate back and forth instead of just reading reviews in the back of the catalogue about each other different products being sold.

The whole idea of the Whole Earth Catalog reminded me of how EBay works online. EBay is a place where you can go and buy anything from cars to a pair of shoes and you are able to communicate with the people selling the product or with others about what they feel the product is like or the quality of the product. This is definitely the modern day WELL. Much like the WELL, on EBay people are able to connect with people who they have never met before and either continue talking with them because they buy the same products or disregard what they have to say about things. EBay also personalizes your own pages by remembering what you bought or looked for so the next time you go on the site images or "things you might like" pop up on the home page. EBay has grown into one of the internet's largest online biding/shopping site, and is still growing today.