There's good news and bad news for women online.

First the good news: Women make up about 40% of Web users in theU.S., according to the GVU's 8th semi-annual WWW User Survey (www.gvu.gatech.edu). Even better news: these numbers reflect a huge increase over the previous 18 months worth of surveys (women's presence is up seven percent after holding steady in the low 30's.)

Now the bad news: While the increase in female users bodes well for the male-heavy Web, as user experience and user age level go up in the survey, the percentage of women users goes down.

In short: females are well represented among newbies and the teenybopper/twentysomething crew, but experienced women over the age of fifty are MIA on the Web.

Now, the Web's only been here for a few years, and women have been slower to jump online. Perhaps less thrilled with the new-toy aspect of computing, they've taken a "wait-and-see-if-it's-worth-our-time" attitude. As women in their teens, twenties, and thirties flood the online ranks, hopefully it's just a matter of playing catch-up before women and men reach parity in experience levels.

Experience levels may be self correcting, but what about the age issue? Why aren't older women taking advantage of the Internet revolution at the same rate as their male peers, and why aren't women in their 50's, 60's and 70's getting online in the same numbers as their female counterparts in other generations?

It may be that these women have better things to do with their time than to get online or that they're less likely to be involved in tech-related jobs that would bring them online, but they're missing out on an important tool --- and a cultural revolution from which age and gender shouldn't exclude them.

The problem could also be lack of content, lack of interest, or lack of exposure. Some content is already out there, and the Web's positive feedback system only increases the quality content as a given audience gets online. As the audience grows, sites pop up that target the audience, which attract more interest and increases the size of the audience, which in turn begets more sites.

In that case, I can only guess that the obstacle is lack of exposure, which would beget the interest, the desire for access, and the growth of quality content that will attract older women to the Web. The answer? Get your grandma online. (Or your mom, or your aunt, or your boss or the woman who sits across the hall from you in the office.) Make an effort to introduce an older woman to the Web.

This column's title may be glib, but the message is serious. If older women don't take advantage of the resources, information, and communication available on the World Wide Web, not only are they missing out, but younger members of the Web community will be deprived of hearing their voices.

If we're going to call it the World Wide Web, let's make sure the whole world is included.

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