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Re: Friday, May 16, 2003
Wholly flawed argument. Just because information is walled off, it doesn’t automatically follow that “hijacking the expression” and changing its meaning is acceptable. So if Google doesn’t see it, it doesn’t exist? If Google doesn’t see it, it is not truth? Charging for access to digital archives is a colossal anachronism? Tell that to the WSJ, to Lexis/Nexis, to serious Scientific/Medical research archives. Charging for access to authoritative digital archives is the salvation of the web, and NOT a collossal anachronism. And comparing the Blog world with the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature? Another wholly flawed argument, as the Readers Guide is merely an index of authoritative WALLED information. And you can do full-text searches, and pull that information in the Readers Guides FROM the web, but guess what? It costs money. Far from being a colossal anachronism, the digitization of authoritative information is a good thing. It however, doesn’t function in this pure fantasy world of the commons. And just as this ‘Big J vs. Blogs’ is so overwrought, so too is the now, mistaken impression of PR Pro/Print Publisher (evil) that wishes to gum up the “best of all possible worlds” Search Engine by walling it off vs. the Blogger (good) who is speaking unrestrained from the prison that is commercial pressures, as the pitch goes. Well, sorry, it’s a ton more complex than that, as human behavior is so very multidimensional, broad-brushing things in simple Black and White and Good vs. Evil terms, makes the Blogs feel “empowered”, but the real question comes down to authoritative vs. unauthoritative, which is why human editors always win out over algorithms, in terms of quality of information. In the case of Search Engines, human editing is sometimes an impossible task, but it is also why things like Lexis/Nexis exist. And hey, (as they say) Google is only indexing 1/3 of the web, whole slew of authoritative material that Google doesn't reach. And Bloggers are usually devoid of real heavy content, as content, deals with time and money. Once the Blog starts taking up too much time, starts eating into too much income, it stops. Hobbies are well and good, but they are not the end all. Which is why at the end of the day, all Blogs that reach the A-List are all selling something, ego, speaking fees, Amazon engine ads, promoing employers product, promoing ones talent in hopes of a payoff, promoing books, promoing freebies in hopes of a contract, marketing of talent that leads to other gigs, and so on and so forth. Blogs are no less immune to the real world, than anything else; Smart Mobs, “Power-to-the-People” neo-hippie mouthwash, notwithstanding. Bottom line: Information costs money. If the Bloggers/Google don't grasp that there is a real problem of noise and pollution, then people will go elsewhere. Far more churning rambling conspiracy theories out on the web than real authoritative information. You get what you pay for. There are responses to this message:
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