I’ve created a new category just for this posting, though I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts to add later, called “People”–because people are it!
If I’m seeming abstract please indulge me for a moment and I promise to make myself clear.
In 1992 when I built my first website there was 1 goal, to show it to people. That hasn’t really changed much over the years, but how to do it has. Back then there was basically 1 way to show your web site to people, by talking with folks and telling them in conversations that it was there.
There were no search engines to care about (a few laughable-at-the-time directory attempts did exist) and online advertising was coveted but had yet to become organized into anything usable.
If you wanted visitors to your web site you had to talk with people either in person, or online in various chatting formats (BBS, chat rooms, irc and etc.) and say “hey, check out my web site”.
Then businesses became serious about advertising online (popups were born) and hired lots of Geeks out of the chat rooms to create elaborate systems for driving traffic with paid advertising, because business folk were far too important, I mean busy, to actually talk to people when they could just throw money around instead to get visitors to their sites.
And some of those chatting Geeks who weren’t offered corporate jobs took it upon themselves to create their own systems and models for driving traffic, this way they could cash in on the big bucks but not have to wear the suit coats and ties every day–and pseudo-search Pay Per Click was hatched; which ultimately led to what we know now as search engines.
It was all about who could control the message. If you controlled the message you controlled the traffic, and money (over technology) was able to control the message in those early years.
Fast forward to today and guess what, paying for traffic through popups, pop-unders, banners, Pay Per Click and search engines–by paying for search engines I of-course mean paying crazy amounts to experts who do things most of us can’t comprehend and they can’t (or won’t) explain to get our pages listed highly in the “natural” search results–well, this whole system is peeling away bit by bit because people don’t like being talked at and told what to like/do/look at/think/etc, and that’s what those systems do.
They impose their desired outcome on the individual rather than assist the individual in finding the best path for their unique needs.
Then along came that dubious Web 2.0
And suddenly people had choices, freedom like they’d never known to share, converse, analyze and rate…
And where does that bring us? Back to talking with one another again.
People, and conversations are what’s driving the web. Just like in the start, only with more bells and whistles; and this time I don’t think they’ll let that control go…
Not convinced that conversation drives the web? Have a look at the numbers in this slideshow presentation I recently saw:
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Tags: control, conversation, Traffic
