Who controls TinyURL (or Snurl or other URL shortener) controls the high ground in the battle for the Internet platform. Here’s why: Our brains are wired to protect ourselves from threats to our food, oxygen, and water sources. Most attacks on our supply chains come from those closest to us, our families, friends, business associates, and combinations of those groups.
We handle nourishment requests from our loved ones by sharing, which is another way of saying dividing the materials to just above the point where each portion proves insufficient. Children come first since quieting their cries reduces the possibility of alerting outsiders while requiring relatively small amounts compared to peers. Then the spouse or friend is satisfied, setting up a social interaction around the breaking of bread. “Let’s grab a bite and talk about the deal.”
Once business is discussed, the parties fan out to hunt again. These cycles of search, retrieve, partition, and recharge dominate our lives, albeit pushed into the background by social constructs such as school, work, play, etc. We agree to ignore the pedestrian nature of breathing in and out that underlies everything.
So how do we identify the morsels of necessity? If we were computers, the mechanism would be the interrupt, some input device that triggers a disruption that moves resources to process the incoming data, or a timer-like object internally that wakes up and commands processes to predetermined or calculated rules based on aggregate input over time.
Writing those rules, the logic that defines what constitutes adequate input to get our attention, is in itself one of the most resource-intensive costs of the system. How do we decide what to pay attention to? One important way is by gathering the previous signals from those we share with and ranking them according to priority. Children first, etc. Only when I became a father of a teenager did I realize how irrelevant my concerns were in the face of a fourteen year olds’ makeup gathering needs. How she defines her friendships consumes far more bandwidth for the whole family than virtually every other task.
Interestingly, the younger daughter (7) is old enough to understand the value of drafting behind her sister while making a whole lot less noise about it. I learn much more from her processing of her sister’s signals than I do from the original cacophony. In other words, rules come from observation of the way others handle similar problems. From an early age, our younger daughter would sit in the living room with her back to the action, listening and absorbing the turmoil, and refocusing her needs to the lessons learned.
Today’s information systems begin to emulate these cycles in something we can call real time. The town crier, letters, telegraph, phone, email, IM - the stages of evolution to today’s real time swirl of information overload. As RSS allowed us to orchestrate our input streams into a more interactive daily newspaper, it also created a new measure of authority, one derived in a more personalized way to reduce the flow to something manageable in the time allowable while maintaining the fundamental ability to return to the forest and hunt for the next meal.
This is the point where social media constructs have begun to break down - identifying not just the holders of authority but the very rules by which we decide what constitutes authority, integrity, and credibility. Do we friend everybody, nobody; follow, track, hide? Interestingly, the words mirror the dynamics of the hunt, the foraging, the kill, the triage known as sharing.
What social scientists are discovering is that sharing produces a better outcome than hoarding. As Jonathan Schwartz so ably proved in his conversation at Supernova, Sun Micro’s open sharing of software proves much more efficient in creating a partnership with its customers than traditional marketing. The customers establish a connection by downloading the code, and then continually signal their needs, intentions, and even ideas at a granular level based on how they use the code, update it, ask questions, and so on. Sun turns this into an interactive, real time map that produces much greater lead generation and fulfillment than previous systems.
Our nervous systems are designed to use these real time feedback loops to manage the flow of body resources to confront the task of survival. Establishing the relative weight of signals becomes a substantial portion of our investment in survival. Those nodes that produce the highest value of data in the most efficient form reliably over time win. Applications like Twitturly demonstrate the aggregate power of these distilled signals. Whether Twitter is the ultimate instantiation of this intersection can be debated, but the TinyURL in the center of that system is the payload that most directly connects to our core instincts for preservation.
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Don’t forget URL Hawk!
looks like I was redirected to biologycrunch.com
We need an article shortener too.
being redirected again it seems to psychobabblecrunch.com
http://poprl.com/86
@What?
so much for the “crunch” in techcrunch
Ok .. that … almost… made sense. Kind of. If what you are saying is that users and the systems linking the users to the content (tinyurl, etc) needs to spend more bandwidth immediatly satisfying the extremely credible and popular links (NYTimes, Newspapers, Techcrunch, Engadget, etc), and then less bandwidth on the second stage of links and so on. If that is infact what you are saying, thats a great idea. If that isn’t what you are saying, then my head would hurt trying to figure it out
Gillmor please make your points a little more concise. “free from all elaboration and superfluous detail”. Remember brevity is the soul of wit.
Steve, I won’t be the first, nor the last, to say that you need to tone it down a bit with your writing. You’re trying too hard to impress and you’re losing readers: this isn’t an academic forum, it’s a blog.
What you have to say might be worth reading, but if you can’t find a more a more direct way of expressing yourself, few will ever notice. I suggest spending a few days with some of Hemingway’s work to reacquaint yourself with the value of a simple, declarative sentence.
what a load of cock and nonsense!
Many of you seem to have a lot of spare time that might be better used by hitting the space bar.
“Reality is responsible for the status quo,” says Marx; however, according to Sargeant, it is not so much reality that is responsible for the status quo, but rather the futility, and subsequent defining characteristic, of reality. An abundance of theories concerning not deappropriation, as Bataille would have it, but neodeappropriation may be found. It could be said that Sartre uses the term ‘materialist pretextual theory’ to denote the role of the poet as reader.
The primary theme of Reicher’s analysis of dialectic objectivism is the difference between class and sexual identity. Debord’s essay on postdialectic narrative holds that the collective is capable of intent, given that language is distinct from truth. Thus, Bataille promotes the use of Marxism to attack sexism.
The subject is contextualised into a that includes sexuality as a totality. Therefore, subcapitalist libertarianism implies that discourse is created by communication.
The subject is interpolated into a that includes language as a reality. Thus, in Naked Lunch, Burroughs reiterates dialectic objectivism; in The Last Words of Dutch Schultz, although, he analyses modern discourse.
The characteristic theme of the works of Burroughs is the role of the participant as poet. It could be said that the subject is contextualised into a that includes narrativity as a paradox.
Baudrillard’s model of postdialectic narrative states that consciousness is capable of significance. In a sense, Sartre uses the term ‘neocapitalist construction’ to denote the common ground between language and society.
There are times when complex issues need further exploration. The subject of social info flow is one of them. Interesting read, much appreciated information from Steve Gillmor. Infohunting sparks within us that sense of exploration, excitement. To share our discoveries with our “networks” stimulates us and continues to engage our circles- this is a positive development in communal communication. The gatekeepers of news/info no longer hold supreme authority- that power is seeping down to us. Now it’s up to us to keep it relevant and trustworthy.
While the language was a little highfalutin the underlying concept was well demonstrated through the example of your daughters. If the point was that a service that tracks posts and links and relates those to authority, popularity and relevance is valuable, of course…isn’t that what Google does as well on some level? And it’s more Twitturly and Tweetburner than TinyURL. And frankly more Friendfeed and other aggregators that allow you to build your own trusted network of relevance.
Your comment should have been that we have no context of destination or content from TinyURL but only that of the poster. That’s even more true, which makes TinyURL kinda worthless.
Ummm that’s kind of incoherent
Hmmm…this debate would be more real time friendly with Friendfeed or potentially disqus if it force updates a post for fresh comments.
I have no idea what this article is about
@11 “Many of you seem to have a lot of spare time that might be better used by hitting the space bar.”
Nah, I’m using my free time re-reading the dictionary for incoherent babble.
That was really deep. I’m still perplexed as to what it all meant, but it sounded positive for URL shortening services. Maybe you need to provide a layman’s version of your article along-side it for us simpler folk. Oh and don’t forget to check out my short URL redirection.
@11: “Many of you seem to have a lot of spare time that might be better used by hitting the space bar.”
After which they’ll hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button in their RSS reader and - poof! - there goes your blogging gig.
what? eh?
If the underlying theme is that the Web is about networking and sharing - this was exemplified by the predecessors of the Web.
Think of Fan Clubs in the 60s
Think of CB radios in the 70s
Think of Newspaper Personals in the 70s
Think of Phone Party Lines in the 80s
Think of Call in Talk Shows in the 80s
Think of News Groups in the 90s
What is really fascinating is trying to envision what the new technology will be a few decades from now - that will satisfy the Human need to communicate and bond with interesting segments of the world.
Will the Web evolve into something else or will a totally new technology intrigue our grandchildren? We can not really assume that the Web will last anymore than other technologies have held onto their popularity?
But what will take its place? Can anyone imagine??????????
Marc
DOn’t see how FriendFeed or other aggregators are more valuable than the direct signals they harvest. If/when Track is turned back on, we will once again be able to acton real time information rather than just observe its effects.
I have no idea why you bothered to write this BS. You have stunned the Internet.
You can try to be a real diplomat. You have the talent
That was incredibly poorly written. The use of metaphors and polysyllabic words doesn’t make you smart.
1. TinyURL has nothing to do with what you’re trying to explain.
2. Neither does your teenager.
3. Stop doing drugs.
lol @ 12. Did they use an essay generator for that? Damn, I have to try that later sometime. Maybe on BoingBoing? ;D
Seriously, Gillmor: How does that stuff relate to TinyUrl? If they started messing around with correct link redirection or jamming in adverts, there are proven alternatives. No big deal, just bad press on them.
I do agree that clarity of conversation and clarity of thinking go hand in hand.
“Many of you seem to have a lot of spare time that might be better used by hitting the space bar.”
Steve, I don’t think you’ve given an honest reply. I think
Steve, I tried to respond here, but I had to push it off to my own blog.
TinyURL has absolutely nothing to do with anything you are saying. It’s certainly not the holder of the internet’s hopes and dreams. It’s a commoditized tool: It’s like saying a hex converter is the key to discovering new colors.
My response on HTMList.com.
Um. {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/Zq2e9enuW6_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Um. ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/3xd65vYQ39″}}}
thaaaaaat was deep
next time, try to stay more on-topic - that helps to make it more understandable
—
Test you broadband speed (worldwide speedtest)
http://www.speed.io
“Many of you seem to have a lot of spare time that might be better used by hitting the space bar.”
Actually it’s the ‘back’ button, but you’re right. There’s no reason anyone should read this crap. It does seem a little shortsighted to attack the people who actually take the time to comment here, but who knows. Maybe it’s a new business direction.
Maybe you guys are on to something, and all the posts can be pumped up with confusing and superfluous language. Instead of ‘chunking’, rely on the ready to read a few words per page and use their space bar more.
Ingenious.
I applaud Steve for trying to achieve a deeper understanding. If you are not interested in that, then it’s just not your cup of tea, but don’t knock him for it.
There is plenty of other content on TechCrunch to consume.
I can’t believe you just discovered TinyURL. newb.
What the f**k are you talking about? I can’t has understand you about talking.
Are you sure this article is in English?
This post reminds me of a useful url shortener test I found recently: http://www.iopus.com/guides/best-short-url.htm
Sorry but this article stinks. Your time would be better spent watching the new Indiana Jones flick than trying to play amateur internet anthropologist.
Perhaps this article does bear some relevance to TinyURL: both demonstrate that often, you can compress information without losing any readability or meaning.
Try this: read only the first letter in each paragraph of Gillmor’s essay. Then go back and read the whole thing, and see if you’ve learned anything more.
Reading this post was like a trip to the dentist for a bad wisdom tooth.
What a load of old bollocks…
By the way Steve, people use their valuable ’spare time’ to read this blog along with your articles… We have every right to comment - both positivley and negativley.
I suggest you use this feedback to provide readers (including myself) with articles that are a little more digestable. Your comment at 4.08 pm was quite arrogant.
Check out http://www.bubblegeneration.com for more blah, blah, blah….
{seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/FdZpPmShLh_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:” ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/TNHKWeXHeP”}}}
I take a steady diet of the Gillmor Gang, although recently the guests and shows have been very uneven, so I generally like Steve. This post is unreadable.
William Tucker
I was getting ready to delete your comment until I noticed your comparison to Umair’s stuff. First time ever and made my day. You stay this time.
What a load of BS. Those who can’t, blog.
You could have shortened this entire thing down to this:
“TinyURL is cool.”
drinking today? hehe ..
“Our brains are wired to protect ourselves from threats to our food, oxygen, and water sources.”
My brain is wired to protect myself from threats to clear, direct communication.
The metaphor was laid down bit thick on this post, sometimes that works, it didn’t here.
I actually enjoy Steve’s posts. I don’t always agree with them, but the many metaphors he uses are often helpful to see how it is he is thinking about these concepts and technologies. I believe it is helpful to listen to the gillmorgang, and keep in mind he uses lots of jargon (meaning he has his own vocabulary; eg. “twitter” doesn’t necessarily mean the service specifically). The spacebar comment means just skip these posts, he doesn’t care to have a large audience.
Here’s my summary: TinyURL works b/c one only clicks TinyURLs from a friend they trust.
Point 1: TinyURL, Snurl and URLHawk shorten long links. That makes it easier for us to share stuff.
Point 2: Without short links, less stuff would get shared, especially on cell phones, Twitter and Blackberry.
Point 3: Links from people we know help us decide what to pay attention to.
Point 4: People rank friends/family to be the most trustworthy, reliable source of information, eg, new products.
Bottom Line: The platform that makes it easiest for us to find, send
and get the most stuff from the most people wins.
Steve, forgive me if I tinyURLed your premise incorrectly.
best,
bonnie
2.
Many thanks for letting my perfectly acceptable comment ’stay’.
I would like to close our dialogue by suggesting that guest blogging for Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch is an incredible priviledge that deserves to be leveraged for the benefit of the widest possible audience.