Emergence Media

How Everything Old is New Again

Speaking with a friend during a show the other night, we bounced around some ideas on the changing trends of Internet culture and behavior on both how Internet users find information and how they relate as a community online.
Finding Information

On the early days of the Web, word-of-mouth was practically the only way of the getting around. Everyone with a website had their cool links section; I remember doing this back in 92-93, showing off the websites I proudly knew of and visited.

The founders of Yahoo brought the next logical step and created a massive, online directory, which was originally called “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. Yahoo’s directory approach came to be replaced by search engines like AltaVista, which continue to dominate as the prime method of finding information on the Web.
And today, while we all “Google”, the phenonemon of word-of-mouth, buzz and referrals are back - but this time through Social Media - from Blogs to YouTube to Myspace. Search became king when editor-based directories proved clumsy and unscalable. Now, search is being suppliemented by Social Media, as changes in technology and the medium itself has allowed for more scable human collaboration of information (from Wikipedia, Yahoo! Answers to YouTube).
Community

Back in the day before the Web there was BBS (Bullintin Board System). Folks would dial-in through a regular phone line to access bullentin boards, download files, play games. Since it was phone line based (you would have to literally call the BBS), BBS can also be characterized as a local phenomenon.

Since then the Web has replaced BSS (and other older internet channels like Gopher) and there was a large push for “Global” communities where anyone in the world can connect with anyone else in the world via the Internet

Oddly enough, the recent years have shown that the “anyone can connect with anyone”, while true, does not a community make. Tribe.net, Consumating, Judy’s Book, FaceBook, and Yelp demonstrate that at least localized community websites have a stronger sense of community than larger sites like Friendster, which attempts to cater to everyone.

While there’s no black/white model to follow between more narrowly-defined community sites against more “global” (or rather general ones), it does demonstrate that while the Internet can connect a person with the entire world, sometimes you just want to hang out on your neighborhood online.
What’s Next?

So what other formerly “outdated” approach to the Internet and Web is now coming back? That’s going to be my weekend speculation…stay tuned.