Internet Stuffing, Yummy - So What Can be Done?
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As I mentioned earlier, I do believe that a joint approach is necessary if we are going to at least reduce the amount of clutter that currently exists on the Internet and delay the future growth rate of crap permeating our online experience. Search engines must do their part, but we must do our part as well. Wouldn't it be cool if there was some collaborative effort across the Internet which would allow anyone to report a duplicate site or one that is thieving content from another or simply leaching off of original content? Conceptually I would envision something along the lines of MySpace except really for the benefit of the entire Internet population and not for monetary purposes - a greater good focus, if you will.
It is unclear how many people or businesses would participate, but I would imagine anyone, whether they're an individual or large entity, would have a shared interest in weeding out copiers from originators. The way the Internet in general, and search engines in particular, are currently operating, one thing is certain: this particular landscape will not be able to sustain itself indefinitely. Extreme modifications will have to be made in order to preserve some semblance of the effectiveness we have grown accustomed to when doing research on the Internet. My big concern is that these space restrictions and their implications on the Internet as a whole will not be realized until it is in a critical phase, at which point only the most drastic of measures will be deemed even moderately effective. And to be certain, when that day comes, the results of any trimming of data indexed by the search engines will have very far reaching implications.
You know how they say to never go food shopping on a empty stomach because you will most likely purchase things you don't want, don't need, and overall will purchase more than you normally would? Well I sort of envision this cluttering scenario as the same type of situation. If things are allowed to continue the way that they are now with search engines not only indexing these duplicate sorts of sites but ranking many of them higher than the originator of the content in question, then that space threshold is going to be reached sooner rather than later. When it happens there will be a quick and hectic scramble by the search engines to determine which data should be omitted, because things will be in such dire straits.
It is my opinion that there may not be as much acute attention paid to exactly the ways and means of determining what data to omit, and stuff will get sliced and diced and damn the consequences. Well the consequences are going to impact folks like you and me. Remember, at the end of the day most of the large search engines today are for-profit entities; this means they are going to do whatever is necessary to keep those profit margins and return shareholder value. Companies that are public experience an acute pressure to perform, and often make rash decisions which will help the bottom line short term, but do not truly look toward the future. I am willing to bet that if Google hasn't seen the space crunch coming yet, they will shortly. And when that happens there are going to be several stop gap methods used to stop the bleeding before they can brainstorm from a much more macro standpoint and come up with a more permanent solution. My fear (which should be your fear as well) is that with these short term solutions (i.e. supplemental listings), it will almost always be the smaller sites which are impacted the most.
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