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Who knew in 1989 that the invention of the World Wide Web would kill network television? Introducing new technologies almost always has unintended consequences. Did anyone envision the development of electric computing devices used to decrypt enemy communications during World War II would lead to Google or iPods?

In the mid 1970s, I was part of Citibank’s team that developed and deployed the first large scale ATM network. Citibank did this to replace escalating variable teller costs with relatively fixed machine costs. The devices were called customer activated terminals or CATs and not ATMs or automatic teller machines. This was a cost savings program, intended to have the customer do the tellers’ work.

Shortly after the headquarters branch had its CATs installed, I remember standing in line one Friday afternoon waiting to get cash for the weekend. I was probably the 10th person in line waiting for one of the two machines. I looked to my left to see no one on line at the teller stations. If only I had my checkbook with me, I could have gone to a teller, gotten cash, and saved my self a 15-minute wait.

The introduction of the CATs changed customer behavior. We no longer carried blank checks. Unfortunately, we did not foresee that this would unbalance branch operations so that the CATs would be overloaded and the tellers underutilized, an unintended consequence. If only the tellers could have handled paperless, Citicard driven transactions, this would not have happened. Who knew?

What was designed as a cost savings program became a marketing success. Citibank had a major competitive advantage in the New York retail banking market.

This pattern of the introduction of new technology and unintended consequence has happened many times. IBM never anticipated that the PC would cost them their preeminence in the world of computing. Microsoft never anticipated that search technology would cost them their preeminence in the world of computing, otherwise they would not be playing catch-up with Google and Yahoo.

I grew up during the era of mass media, television and radio networks. When I was a kid, there were three television networks and three independent stations. Television morphed into a broader distribution model with the introduction of cable and satellite providers. But, the model was still one of mass media, a limited number of publishers who decided what they would feature and when. The audience had limited choices.

This era is at an end. The distribution of information is fragmenting, to the dismay of the major media companies. The competition for eyeballs and ears is fiercer today than ever before. The competition is expanding exponentially. A recent news story announced there are now over 100 million websites. Today’s adolescents spend more time instant messaging, text messaging or playing video games than they do watching television or talking on the telephone. The audience for internet radio and netcasts (AKA podcasts) surpassed broadcast radio in the spring of 2006.

This has major implications for advertising and public relations. No longer can you depend upon newspapers and broadcast media to get the message out. You now have to contend with search engines and search engine optimization techniques. You have to consider paid keyword search ads like Google AdSense or website banner ads. Web-based advertising has created the problem of click fraud and click fraud detection, another unintended consequence.

So when you introduce new technology into your business or personal life expect the unexpected.