The history of the internet is a story of two counter-balancing forces: the explosive growth of information and the rise of new systems that help us sift and make sense of this information.
Back in the early 1990s, human editors at companies like Yahoo! compiled curated lists and directories of useful information. As the rising volume of information overwhelmed these human filters, hand-curation gave way to algorithmic search à la Google. But today, as consumers become their own media outlets, producing staggering amounts of user-generated content every day, and savvy marketers reverse-engineer Google’s algorithm to game the search results, separating signal from noise is once again becoming difficult.
Back in the early 1990s, human editors at companies like Yahoo! compiled curated lists and directories of useful information. As the rising volume of information overwhelmed these human filters, hand-curation gave way to algorithmic search à la Google. But today, as consumers become their own media outlets, producing staggering amounts of user-generated content every day, and savvy marketers reverse-engineer Google’s algorithm to game the search results, separating signal from noise is once again becoming difficult.
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