Used to be , back in the good old Day of the net , like five years ago , that you could do a search for , oh , I do n’t know,”transplanting roses ” or “ citrus leaf curl ” or “ compost pile ” and come up with some reasonably dear resources , mostly university extension websites , some horticulture magazine publisher , and the sites of real expert who have devoted their lives to the curling leaves of citrus tree trees or the touchy workplace of transplant roses or some such thing . Martha Stewart ’s site would turn up in the first few page of a search , put up detail , accurate advice from an actual expert , and that was all right too . You had the feeling that , even in the Wild West that is the internet , there were adult around — adults who have a go at it things , and would differentiate them to you .
Now ? eHow . And Suite 101 , Ask , LoveToKNow , HowStuffWorks , InfoPlease , About , Examiner , GardenGuides , AllExperts , Mahalo , Answers , Life123 , ezinearticles , essortment – it run low on and on . progressively crowding out real , useful entropy written by multitude who actually know how to do something . The developer – and the algorhythms – behind these sites are so good at making them climb to the top of search results that , for many topic , specially in a how - to , service - y area like horticulture , they ’re much all you get .
Thisfascinating clause in Wired magazineexplains just how a land site like eHow works : a computer determines what search terminal figure multitude are searching for , and how much advertisers will pay for particular keywords , and then it proposes a list of topics for which it necessitate articles write . At the clip of the Wired piece , the society had a leaning of 62,000 topics for which it would like articles or telecasting from its freelancers–“the on-line eq of solar day jack wait in front of Home Depot . ” A author would get paid about $ 15 per article , and $ 2.50 to copyedit a firearm or $ 1 to fact - insure it .
I ’m not go to sound off here about the wretched salary or the eldritch business model or any of that . And I know people who have written for these sites or at least thought about it , and hey , everybody ’s got to make a bread and butter . My concern is the way in which the accumulation of these web site has come to prevail Internet searches to the ejection of the many real , utilitarian , fact - fill sites that actual expert have worked so hard to put together . The very promise of the Internet – that the world ’s lead clematis expert could share her carefully curated and time - tested advice and expertness with the world , and anyone could regain it – is pass fast , when a caller like Demand Media , which owns eHow , can pump out ( at the meter of the Wired article ) 4000 new articles or vidoes every day .
What ’s the answer ? I wish it thatWikipedia has taken a stand – it will not let eHow articles to be summons as a reference beginning . And I had high hopes when I readthis article about a recoil against depicted object millsthat spill about a search engine called Duck Duck Go that blocked eHow – but sadly , it still lets several content mills ( aka “ Made for Adsense ” sites ) through . There is little hope that Google will take much of a stand , when the web site are delivering Google advertizing in such a profitable way .
I do n’t have any answer . But the proliferation of these land site drives me huffy . I wish I could say that the whole affair is on the verge of give way under its own weight – but that would be desirous cerebration , would n’t it ?
