We got this email from Brad Haugaard of Big.com:

I’m the project manager for Big.com, a search engine project of Snap.com, and I thought you might be interested in what we are doing.

My guess is that most search engines are designed by 20-year-olds for 20-year-olds, but there are a lot of people – and they are growing as a percentage of the U.S. population – who are older than 20 and who may not see as clearly as they did when they were younger.

We believe Big.com addresses that problem.

Big.com is an extremely simple, quick, large-font search engine for people with low vision. It is easily adjustable to three sizes: Big, Bigger and Biggest.

Brad, it sounds like a great idea for a company. It’s an issue, if not after our own withered hearts, then at least before our bulbously myopic octogenarian eyes. You’re totally right ,of course: the Internet was designed for 20 year olds, not the astigmatismed 90 year olds who made this country great.

But hey! Try this. Go to Google.com, hold down the Control key (or the command key on a Mac) and then roll your mouse wheel down. You can switch through three sizes easily that way: Big, Bigger and Biggest! Plus a hundred font sizes in between. And we figured that out without creating a multi-million dollar Internet company! Plus, our method has the benefit of making the text stay big after you leave the search page. Unfortunately, the Internet breasts you geezers ogle will stay the same size.

Maybe you should patent this method: as sole creators of the CTRL + mouse wheel combo, we give you full permission to make Big.com’s fortunes riding on our laurels.

(Edit: It’s control on Windows. We were using a Mac at the time!)

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