Put Up or Shut Up

Even in everyday conversation, we have to filter our comments with "is this really going to add to the discussion?" Too many magazines get established by one group of people and get taken over by another group of people who lack the passion for the subject matter. A media outlet can be valuable only one of two ways: original content or excellent aggregation.

Publishing 2.0: Join The Web Content Conservation Movement, 2008-Apr-20, by Scott Karp

But is shoveling as much content as possible onto the web really the best way to create enduring value?

I come back, as always, to Google, the most valuable media company on the web.

Google doesn’t create any new content — it just cleans up our mess, like a giant recycling plant.

Google cleans up content pollution by linking to the most relevant content, determined by counting all of the links on the web.

A link is a form recycling because it references a valuable piece of existing content rather than creating more content. A link reduces pollution just like recycling plastic does.