Links are Currency
Wikipedia no longer allows search engines to follow links on its site. I was reading kottke and he brought up an interesting point: “Links are currency on the web and Wikipedia just stopped paying it forward.”
Links are currency on the web. I never really thought about it like that before. I remember my early days of blogging; my giddiness over receiving a link was positively overwhelming. Even now entire sites are built around the premise of a site’s wealth (see: blogshares) or rank in the blogosphere (see: web ecosystem, technorati, need I go on?).
Sites have “del.icio.us this article” or “digg this” embedded at the bottom of every post. Why? Often, the pursuit of increasing blogosphoric wealth
This fascinates me as it reveals the motivation of many in this world. Often times, people work for monetary gain, fame, or prestige. Conversely, sometimes it is as it ought to be: in the interest of helping one’s fellow man.
The phrasing “links are currency” simply tripped a trigger in my brain. What is the motivation in writing? Am I posting for 1) self-documentation / sharing information with the world or 2) blogosphoric wealth?
In turn, is the web a fair economy? Are those seeking links proving blogosphorically impoverished due to a lack of quality content? If so, those who have more virtuous motives would prove the most affluent by means of an abundance of incoming links praising the excellent resources.
Unremarkably, the thought is irrelevant and highly discriminating depending on individual personalities and their corresponding motivations and aspirations. In any vein, if links are currency, perhaps we should view them with an equal level of care as we would our dollars and cents – cease arbitrarily linking to mediocre resources.
