Virtual Tours

With the internet being so cool and hip not only is everything on Facebook and Twitter but it is now common for anything to be an "e-whatever" or "virtual".  Buzzwords like these are taught to salespeople by some old farts who think these words are the key to moving products and selling merchandise   So, in their zealousness to make a deal, people are using those words very very liberally.  Take this example - the virtual tour.

For the most part, virtual tours are neither virtual nor tours.  Discuss.  Apart from the rare exceptions, virtual tours are just looking at pictures.  The only virtual part is that it's online.  Look at what you get for this house listing when you click on the virtual tour.  Really?  Panning in and out on still pictures?  What is this the 1990's world wide web?  They actually have an option to look at the "virtual tour" or look at the pictures - so why in the hell would you look at moving pictures when you could just make them stay still?  This is a common and rampant practice in way too many house listings and car sales.

Congress is all up in our sports world, so why can't they take a quick second to mandate that in order to call something a "virtual tour" you have to use either a video of someone walking through a house or whatever, you see their point of view, or something you can pan around yourself and navigate around the terrain yourself.  If you did not follow this rule you will be put to death.  Harsh?  Sure, but how hard is it to not falsely apply the term "virtual tour"?  Just don't be an idiot and you will live just like everything else in life.

"Look at what I have virtually created!"