{{Thunderclaw}}: I would like to challenge the assertation that "speaking of screen names, everyone gets something short, pithy, relevant, and unique." I have never seen this happen. In fact, I've gotten the exact opposite impression; in fiction, nobody ''ever'' uses the "Aeiouna" or "Kizor" type of handles I'm used to seeing. They always have some stereotypically ultra-lame handle with arbitrary numbers at the end. Contrary to the article, ''everyone'' is "JAnderson789" or "buffyfan2001." Just off the top of my head, I've seen this sort of thing in Smallville, Web of Desire (I think it was names) and that one webcomics where the girl sells ghosts on eBay that I can't remember what it's name is. Maybe I've just been watching recent shows and this part of the trope is dying? Feel free to challenge me.

----
{{Andyzero}}: Would stupidly obvious passwords count here? Seems like anyone with a computer/internet password have it so obvious you wonder why everyone hasn't cracked it. Also, they never include numerals, as most reliable Internet software in fact requires.

{{Ununnilium}}: Personally, I'd put that as a subtrope under InsecuritySystem.

Anonymous: What's wrong with someone having a really short IM screen name? Not every system requires the screen name to be unique. (eg ICQ)

{{Seth}}: You know my high school, my collage and my university all had distribution lists with every student and staff e-mail address on them if you use your school e-mail to send them. I wouldn't call it magical. Oh so does the office at the catering firm i work at, all the e-mails of every clerical staff member are listed. This isn't unusual.

RedShoe: I know it's common for businesses, but I hadn't seen one for a school before. Also, many of the times I've seen this in TV, it appears that they're not using a mailing list, but have actually pressed some sort of "Send to everyone" button in their email client, giving the impression that they actually have the address of every other individual in their address book -- which is not really reasonable unless you're using a directory service, which is fairly uncommon when you're not using something like an exchange server (which has its own likliness problems when you're doing it from home)

----
(random passer-by): During a recent IT security audit at a company I have some familiarity with, taking place at the same time as the nearest large city's sports team being in the playoffs, more than half the desktop systems checked had their Windows passwords set by their users to the team's name. Depressingly stupid and obvious passwords are depressingly common in the real world.

----
{{Kizor}}: Honestly if not completely seriously speaking, if I run into SCHOL-R-LEA, Wikipedia editor, bunny, Wotcher, Narbonic reader, troper, one more time, I'm adding TruthInTelevision to this article.

{{Krid}}: Hi. lol

{{Citizen}}: Hullo thar.
----
MisterSix: "The standard fictional search engine used on British TV is Search-Wise.net" - has it actually been used in any programmes other than ''DoctorWho''? Or in any other episodes of ''DoctorWho'' than "Rose"?

DaibhidC: Apparently, it's [[http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/fake-websites-youll-only-see-on-tv/ used a lot in EastEnders]], and has been seen on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_(Torchwood) an episode of Torchwood]].
----
{{Citizen}}: Meh, I didn't want [[http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/6594/internetonadisczw3.jpg the picture]] to be too large, but shrinking did rendered the smaller text illegible. Oh well.
{{Adam850}}: That's a great picture.
EricDVH: Just as well, "disc" is only the correct spelling when referring to optical discs, it has to be spelled "disk" for floppies, HDDs, etc...
----
KhymChanur: Isn't this just a sub-trope of AcceptableBreaksFromReality? It'd be boring and a waste of screen time to show how big the net really is.
* {{Da_Nuke}}: It wouldn't, trust me. Anime series usually portray the Internet as one hell of a big network.
----
{{arromdee}}: Does the Simpson's reference actually spell it as "incompetent" or is that just a typo here?

''Arilou'': RE: The Night Watch thing, it isn't explained very well in the movie, but one of the powers of the Others (all Others) is to basically "smooth out" probability lines. IE: TGetting lucky is part of their powerset.

(I believe one of the exmaples cited in the books is that an Other *never* has to wait for a taxi)

----
{{Kizor}}: Sup. Pulled this:

** [[PaulPower This troper]] is always mildly amused at the way in which ''DoctorWho'' takes place in a parallel universe where no-one in Britain has heard of such cultural icons as the Daleks, the TARDIS and the Doctor himself. But then, maybe he reads too much [[MetafictionDemandedThisIndex metafiction]].

...because it's GenreBlindness, and fairly standard fare. (My irrational hatred of "this troper" and associated matters is also involved, so I think that the first reason stands on its own.

-----
{{Aeiouna}}: To give the {{Spider-Man}} example credit, when Michael Jackson died, it did kinda bring down the ''entire internet'' for real.

----
!!Exceptions

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* In the anime movie ''GhostInTheShell'' and its TV sequel, ''GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, the net is much bigger and more complex than it is now. Intelligence-gathering via the Internet is the main job of team member Ishikawa, who rarely leaves his computer terminal. And even ''he'' comes up empty on occasion.
** There's also an amusing subversion of this trope in one specific episode of the TV series. An important witness has gone missing, and in order to find him, Section 9 pulls some political strings to get access to the American Empire's satellite net, which will let them search every single piece of electronic communication in Japan in real time. It works, and they find the guy, but then discover that [[spoiler:the bad guys ''also'' had access to the satellite net, and so they know where the witness is, too. Explosions ensue.]]
*** They also need to borrow/rent/steal full-use time on one of Japan's resident supercomputer clusters just to process the vast volume of data.
*** Also, the strain of monitoring so much data literally caused many of Section 9's android Operators to crash, forcing Ishikawa to "borrow" processing power from other people's cyberbrains and running them in parallel.
* In one episode of ''KeroroGunsou'', Keroro tries to look up "Christmas" on the Internet, and ends up getting hundreds of thousands of hits, forcing him to limit his search a bit.
* In ''PuniPuniPoemi'', the aliens access the Internet to learn about Earth, but all they find is [[TheInternetIsForPorn pornography]].
* Kyon in ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' is seriously worried about Haruhi wanting to post the highly erotic pictures of Mikuru on her website. Apparently he not only knows that the Internet is big, he also knows that the Internet is full of ''creepy'' people.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In the movie ''JayAndSilentBobStrikeBack,'' Randal uses the fairly generic alias "Darth Randal".
* The movie ''YouveGotMail'' actually correctly made use of AOL, from regular email, to the use of the IM ability. Oh, and the screen names of the lead characters were "Shopgirl" and "[=NY152=]".
** One suspects that representatives of AOL would have acted as consultants to ensure their brand was portrayed accurately. Also, they must have supplied the software specifically for the filmmakers as the version (AOL 4.0) had not been released at the time of filming. It's interesting to note that the film was produced by Warner Bros, and the AOL-Time-Warner merger happened the following year, so maybe close ties had already been established.
* In the 2007 ''{{Transformers}}'' film, Sam Witwicky uses the login name "Ladiesman217" for his Ebay page.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''EndersGame'' does a surprisingly good job of portraying the modern "Net", considering its 1985 origins... if anything, it depicts the Internet as being ''more'' important and integrated into society than it is now.
** Particularly the depiction of the first two bloggers following the MessianicArchetype, a bit amusing to modern audiences.
*** Card couldn't have predicted how many bloggers would fit the archetype. Parodied in this [[http://xkcd.com/635/ xkcd strip]].
** This troper didn't do more than raise an eyebrow at ''that'', but found it jarring that the online communities were so insular: there are different types of access, the stuff students get being heavily restricted (with student's access, all you can do in a discussion outside your little bubble is be a {{Lurker}}), and the major political forums don't allow anyone to post except by ''invitation''.
*** So It's set in [[BannedInChina China]], then?
*** Actually, from what [[ThisTroper This Troper]] inferred from the books, China's worse.
* Cory Doctorow's ''Little Brother'' does a good job of portraying the 'net similarly to real life, complete with quickly popularized memes and handles like [[NineteenEightyFour w1n5t0n.]] Of course, it is written by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow Cory Doctorow.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* The new ''DoctorWho'' episode "Rose" features a subversion, where Rose types "Doctor" into a search engine ([[http://search-wise.net a fake one]], designed specifically to be used in fiction), and gets a billion irrelevant hits.
** But then, when she typed +Doctor, +blue box produced results. #
***Ironically, if you type "Doctor" into Google in the real world, you will get [[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=doctor&btnG=Google+Search multiple relevant hits on the first page]].
*** That's what she gets for not using Google, then.
** Also in ''{{Torchwood}}'':
---> '''Ianto:''' I've searched for "I shall roam the Earth and my hunger shall know no bounds" but I keep getting redirected to Weight Watchers.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''MegaManBattleNetwork'': The Internet is so big that AI programs can run around it like it was its own world.
** However only the main characters seem to have actual ''personal pages'', and they're all in the same area, while all other areas are nothing more than useless [[TruthInTelevision virus-filled mazes]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''TheSimpsons''; Smithers, looking for somebody to fill in as Mr. Burns' valet while he's on vacation, searches the employee database for "incompetent", and gets 713 results. He adds a long list of additional adjectives hoping to narrow down the search -- and gets the same 713 results. At that point, he mutters, "Oh, I'll just get Homer Simpson."
* The ''SouthPark'' movie features Stan looking up "clitoris", and being rewarded with eight million results. (Which is actually more than the 5.23 million Google produces. "clit" is good for 5.92 million.) That said, the first one is still inadvertently relevant, seeing as it features Cartman's mother...
** It's ''SouthPark.'' She was probably on half of those pages.
*** Also, on a whim, this troper just googled "clitoris", and now needs to change his pants.
*** Actually there are 9+ million results for "clit" now
* On ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends,'' Bloo is referred to once by his Internet tag "cardsharkmasterB22".

Moved the exceptions here because I don't think they belong on the main page.