Hypertext
as mediated by the Web browser has not proved to
embody the qualities of the ideal post-structural
text longed for by literary theorists such as
George Landow; neither has the World Wide Web
fulfilled the document-association function of the
memex, the hypothetical research tool Vannevar Bush
described in his 1945 essay,
As We May
Think. Bush’s memex was not merely a form
of photo-mechanical hypertext, but also a means for
the full-scale transfer of complex collaborative
thought processes, as encoded by individual
researchers via their own personal document
association schemas. While weblogs, the most
influential textual genre truly native to the World
Wide Web, do facilitate the exchange of information
across the Internet, that information must be
carefully filtered in order to be useful.
Google’s February 2003 purchase of the popular
weblogging platform Blogger signals a shift towards
content production that may create a conflict of
interest; nevertheless, Google’s proven
ability to mine the data encoded in annotated
trails of linked documents may create the synergy
necessary to fulfill Vannevar Bush’s
vision.
1. Weblogs
2. Of Memex, Meme, and Machine
3. Hypertext Escapes from the Laboratory
4.History of Weblogs