A post with the title “The web is dead” got me thinking about this topic and the arguments made by the author. Of course the author is using the term “web” in a specific way. His reference is to web content hosted directly or indirectly (on a server providing web sites) by individuals or groups, linked to offer the benefits of a web, and not Internet content in general. He differentiates social media from “the web” pretty much based on the factors of hosting and control.
The author argues that the web is dying because content ages and links become broken. I agree, but I still see this as an inconvenience rather than a fatal flaw. I would suggest that taking on the technological challenge of being in charge of your own site is most likely the biggest challenge to wider use. The challenge varies depending on whether you want to rent server space or use a service such as Blogger or WordPress.com, but in either case running a web site requires some learning.
The author makes one point about links among sites I totally agree with. Links as used by the early Google was a reasonable way to identify quality content on the web. Brin and Page used a system they called “page rank” based on the system academics use to estimate the value of scholarly publications. The more times other academics reference a paper, the more useful, important, or influential it must be. It is not a perfect system, but as a numerical estimate of quality it works pretty well. Google moved on from page rank for reasons of self interest. Google realized that their system would be more lucrative (i.e, sell more ads) if users found links they agreed with at the top of search results. For many types of search (e.g., politics), there is a difference between information that is most accurate and information that appeals to personal interests. To get from pagerank to this system, Google began collecting data on user behavior and working these data into the search algorithm. I really wish a search service would either return to a page rank type approach or offer page rank as a search option.
The issue of search aside, I write a blog instead of posting this type of content to Facebook, Medium, or some other social/composite service because I value maintaining control of my own content and in reaction to the ways by which services like Facebook make income. Hosting my own blog costs me and probably limits my readership, but principles are important and my focus is more on maintaining blogs as a long term goal.
To make use of blogs as an information source, I suggest users must:
- read and if possible write a blog
- carefully link to other content in your blog
- comment on the blog posts written by others
- learn to use RSS as a way to efficiently follow multiple blogs