The Once and Future Web. Search Ignored!

December 27, 2011

A perspective we can agree with: Dave Winer at Scripting News explains “Why Apps Are Not the Future.” The article notes that the death of the Web has been predicted since 1997. Recently, such forecasts have been based with the growth of the mobile app.

Winer is sure that the fascination with apps will pass, and users will return to the Web. The simple reason: links. App-creators control the information that goes in or out of their app; that’s limiting to those of us who value the wide-open Web. The write up declares:

The great thing about the Web is linking. I don’t care how ugly it looks and how pretty your app is, if I can’t link in and out of your world, it’s not even close to a replacement for the web. It would be as silly as saying that you don’t need oceans because you have a bathtub.

Colorful point, but what about all those who predict that the Web will give way to apps? Winer insists they are just kissing up to the moneyed class. Those with money, he says, find the Wild Web to be a threat, and prefer to believe we’re moving into the regulation of an app world. Hmm, is it really that simple?

Whatever the reason for the Web-death auguries, we agree with Winer: apps are not the future. But search? Ignored again. Mistake.

Cynthia Murrell, December 27, 2011

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.