This is really really awful for the future of the Internet. Generating random content is specifically the kind of garbage that we don't want on the web. It's the definition of 'free-ridership' -- lets create a bunch of valueless nonsense programmatically, and massively destroy true value (real useful information) and then PROFIT.
As general content degrades, all the more that eventually we're going to see some form of information and content delivery certification emerge, not unlike what Underwriters Laboratories do for for product and material goods safety and quality, or what the USDA and FDA try to do for food and drug quality. Perhaps something akin to the movie and game content ratings, but adding fact checking.
A voluntary certification system could help people trust content. Search engines could apply web content providers' quality group affiliation (or lack thereof) to search heuristics.
Maybe it will be NGO based, maybe government run, depending on where you are in the world. I'd opt for the NGO approach myself, with a healthy number of competing organizations, especially considering China's effective use of content control as an extreme case.
A danger here, though, is if we move to "seals of approval" web content and the majority of individuals and groups avoid content that does not have a "seal of approval" then there are going to be barriers to entry, such as the various costs that members of associations pay for services.
Comments
This is really really awful for the future of the Internet. Generating random content is specifically the kind of garbage that we don't want on the web. It's the definition of 'free-ridership' -- lets create a bunch of valueless nonsense programmatically, and massively destroy true value (real useful information) and then PROFIT.
Weak.
As general content degrades, all the more that eventually we're going to see some form of information and content delivery certification emerge, not unlike what Underwriters Laboratories do for for product and material goods safety and quality, or what the USDA and FDA try to do for food and drug quality. Perhaps something akin to the movie and game content ratings, but adding fact checking.
A voluntary certification system could help people trust content. Search engines could apply web content providers' quality group affiliation (or lack thereof) to search heuristics.
Maybe it will be NGO based, maybe government run, depending on where you are in the world. I'd opt for the NGO approach myself, with a healthy number of competing organizations, especially considering China's effective use of content control as an extreme case.
A danger here, though, is if we move to "seals of approval" web content and the majority of individuals and groups avoid content that does not have a "seal of approval" then there are going to be barriers to entry, such as the various costs that members of associations pay for services.