Referring back to the first message:

I don't call this "psychology." "Psychology" makes it sound way too esoteric. I call it plain old common sense.

There is nothing strange going on here. People learn what they think they need to learn to get on with daily life, and ignore the rest.

There is way too much information in the world to pay attention to all of it.

It doesn't surprise me at all that the average person is ignorant about a lot of things that a web developer thinks everyone ought to know (like the difference between a web browser and a search engine).

The fact is, you can get along quite well without knowing this.

The writer/blogger at WebDesignerDepot.com (whose name I can't find—why would he hide it?) is doing a great thing, a very smart thing, by observing a naïve user.

(I prefer to call him naïve, not ignorant; "ignorant" often carries connotations of "stupid." It's good to remember, we were all that naïve once.)

More web developers ought to do this. It sounds like it's a new experience even for this writer. The fact that he considers it worth writing about implies it's a thing that isn't often done. More's the pity.

Have you ever observed anyone looking at Mudcat for the first time?

Do you think even Max has? I bet he'd be shocked if he did.

Bill D: I'll bet you assumed that everyone who opened this thread would follow your link and read the essay before commenting.

I'll bet that's not what's happening.