Web 1.0 throwback

One of the things that inspired this personal blog, is the way that Cal Newport describes Web 1.0 and how it compares to Web 2.0 in terms of content discovery. He breaks it down into a simple framework with Web 1.0 being driven by links and Web 2.0 being driven by networks. To visualize that, imagine the old blogasphere where you would discover content through links from one blog to another, while in Web 2.0 you discover content that is shared by your network in social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter.

Something that was lost in the switch from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, is the effort that it takes to actually follow the trail of links to discover content on your own. Yet at the same time, the fact that sharing content became easier, means that the discovery of the content became less valuable and the content itself is less likely to be trustworthy.

So along those lines, I am thinking of this blog as a way that I can share ideas that really make an impact on me in some way or that I have given some amount of serious thought to. When a reader stumbles across these ideas, they will understand that I did more effort than simply clicking a re-share button. And to the folks who I link to, they will receive some amount of SEO juice that is more enduring and valuable than a simple social media share. It's not much, but this type of gesture feels like it is in the spirit of the original Web 1.0 and we could all use a bit more of that.