Cutting Through Web Content Clutter June 24, 2009
From Mitch Joel’s recent blog post, “This Conversation Is A Blip“:
At some point soon, we’re going to have to make a serious decision: are we creating content for the power of search and to ensure that everything we think and publish is findable over the years, or is that dream about to die and we’re on the verge of creating content in real-time – in short bursts – that are meant to live and die in the moment? It could be a hybrid of both, but being able to index and navigate through the mass amounts of text, audio, video and images seems more and more like a daunting task versus a powerful and easy resource.Whatever the case may be, the power of content’s value seems to be shrinking in terms of long-term worth and increasing in terms of “what’s happening right now.”
In my opinion, it’s a reality check.
We can’t be everywhere at once, we can’t listen in on thousands of conversations simultaneously, and we’ll never be able to sift through all of the content that constantly appears on a daily basis.
The long-term worth of content isn’t going to disappear.
Don’t get me wrong – we should let the minute-by-minute information continue to flow. But we shouldn’t bite off more than we can chew, and thus there will always be a need for thorough and informative news reports, educational guides and comprehensive articles.
The content that sums it all up – the articles that sift through the hundreds/thousands of tweets and blog posts and emails – will continue to retain long-term value in the end.
Are we really at the point where if something is really important we’ll eventually see it, but we rarely do look back to see what we missed?
Mitch is right when he talks about tweets being disregarded if they’re missed. And yes, trending topics do get the most leverage out of Twitter activity. But I disagree that this is an indicator of decreasing long-term value in content. If anything, it’s a testament to the necessity of quality content that makes sense of all the clutter.
Are we really at the point where if something is really important we’ll eventually see it, but we rarely do look back to see what we missed?
Haven’t we always been at that point? Traditional broadcast mediums got around it with frequency. Print publications had their pass-along readership. It’s always been a fight to grab attention.
The web – although innovative – still retains familiar hurdles for marketers. It’s full of competition, full of clutter, and full of unique obstacles for marketers/advertisers/businesses to overcome.
(Disclaimer: I may have completely misinterpreted Mitch’s post, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up cramming some odd tangents into the above post.)
Posted in Reblog