Sunday, April 03, 2005

Connecting the Random Web

The web has its own sense of randomness. It’s like walking into a library, emptying out the old card catalog, and throwing the thousands of little cards into the air. No more index; everything becomes random. You can only browse.

In the upper right-hand corner of this page is a button entitled “Next blog”. By clicking it, you are sent to a totally random blog page; it could be someone from Sweden, it could be an insurance company in Savanah, Georgia. If you waited another five minutes, returned to my page, and pressed the “Next blog” button, you would get another random page.

Such randomness can lead to some interesting connections. I clicked on the button and landed on the ramblings of a 20-something who described his weekend trip to visit friends at a large university. He described his drinking and smoking binge, and even mentioned getting behind the wheel and buying some beer for a few underage friends. I got bored with his repetitive party descriptions, so I hit the “Next Blog” button….And was greeted with a page from an Alcohol and Substance Abuse Support Center.

Now, if I could only connect the second author with the first…..

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