Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Web vs. E-Mail for data...
Author: Dave Winer Posted: 11/25/1998; 11:32:19 AM Topic: Testing a new feature. Msg #: 505 (In response to 502) Prev/Next: 504 / 506
That fits in with the theory that the home page of an effective site must be a news page and the only other major thing it has to do is search. Those are the two elements: timeliness and completeness, and they are equally important.The hiearchies we've been building on the web over the last N years have been a wasted effort. Hierarchies do have their place, but not as overarching structures that enable people to find out what's new or find the fact they're looking for, buried in 10,000 "pages" each of which contains 18 facts.
The other thing that must be factored in at the top level is performance. People are very impatient about getting information. If it's sticky (a great word, heard Steve Case use it over and over yesterday) then they'll give up. If it gets you a good list of possibilities quickly, then people *will* use it. The web hasn't been a complete failure, thanks to the existence of the search engines.
Dave
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