Yahoo threw a conference called "Real Women, Digital World" as a kind of hyper-focus-group, in which a bunch of women were called in to explain What Women Want From The Internet. This on-site account is pretty funny.
Rachel, who gives her age as "almost 23," is a recent transplant
to San Francisco from Chicago. She is dressed in jeans, sneakers,
a T-shirt, a zip-up hoodie and a belt decorated with pink
flamingos and palm trees. She gamely tries to explain to the
suits clustered around her exactly what it is that she does on
the Internet.The short answer: Um, everything.
A habitué of Craigslist, Rachel says she has used the Net
to find a roommate, find her apartment in Hayes Valley, and find
her part-time job. If she gets lost and doesn't have Net access,
she'll call a friend who does and ask her to go to MapQuest and
get directions. She pays all her bills online and reads the news
on S.F. Gate and N.Y. Times.com, two sites she doesn't even
bother to refer to by the names of the newspapers they represent.
She's selling a car online right now.
