Those of you who have read any of my posts to date will have noticed no doubt a certain duality. A belief that technology offers an interesting and exciting future for book publishing combined with fears that new and different gatekeepers will be ready to choke off the opportunities that present themselves.
The gate keepers I most fear are search engines who have managed through foresight and perseverance to place themselves between the audience and content. Yes there are challengers to the crowns of Yahoo and Google and their few mega companions but in truth they are few and they serve to prove the rule.
In pondering this I have been reading widely about how search works and was guided by “Melanie’s Round Up” in John Battelle’s Searchblog to a fascinating article in IEEE Spectrum on pagerank and how:
While search engines do not make for a level playing field, their use partially mitigates the rich-get-richer nature of the Web, giving new sites an increased chance of being discovered.
It is tough but rewarding read and can be found in its entirety here. I am still torn between a dream and reality but I am perhaps a little easier in my dreaming.
Filed under: Books, Future of Books, Future of Publishing, Publishing Companies, Tech & Web stuff
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