It's hard to keep up with the many subtle technology changes that happen on the internet every day. Just when you think you understand how things work, they change. It's not just how the internet works, but also how all those devices connect to and use the data available on the internet, which is referred to as the Internet of Things.
Facebook and Google are infamous for making subtle daily changes that will drive you crazy. Spend some time with me in-person, and you'll hear me complain about mysteriously missing features that are here today and gone tomorrow. Easy come and easy go.
The reason you should not bother with an under construction page on your website is simply because the entire world of the Internet of Things is under construction all of the time.
Those of you with WordPress websites or any site running on PHP are probably aware of those times when your web host does an automatic upgrade and breaks your website. It's aggravating, and it can be embarrassing if someone else points out that your website is down.
While it's impossible to keep up with it all, you should take every effort to make sure your own corner of the internet still functions correctly. Similar to how, back during the era of Tom Sawyer, the Mississippi River changed so often that different riverboat captains learned to safely navigate small stretches of the river. Just like the Mississippi River was too long for any single captain to navigate, the Internet of Things is too vast for any of us to fully comprehend every day.
Managing your own corner of the internet is as simple as clicking around your website, social profiles, email newsletters, and anywhere else where your online identity exists. I guarantee that strange issues will pop up in completely unexpected places, and here's one such example...
I received this email last week from Brian Bergeron Designs asking me to rate my experience with them:
This email certainly looks simple enough, but there's a problem that they didn't realize, and I might not have noticed it either if it weren't for the nature of the email and what they were asking me to do.
The email asks if I would recommend my experience with them. It's a simple yes or no question along side two additional links to review them on Google+ or review them on Yelp. Four simple click options: yes, no, review on Google+, review on Yelp. The problem is that the review feature of Google+ was removed in November 2015. Oops!
Google Reviews still exist; you just can't submit them through Google+ anymore. Google Maps has once again taken on the review functionality. Naturally, Google+ and Google Reviews are such a big service that you'd never expect it to change, but sadly, the link in the above email breaks.
With their new format, Google doesn't make it easy to find the direct link to leave a review. Thankfully, Grade.us has created a web page to look up your review link. Click here to get a link to your Google Review page.
The lesson to learn here is that internet features and functionality that you know and love can change at any time, and those changes are beyond your control. It's not always apparent when things break, so you might go looking for them on occasion.
