But in Google's page rank system, doesn't something similar happen? If you happen to use the same terms others have for the exact thing you want, it comes up near or at the top, but if the terms you use have been used by many others for something else, then you won't get very good results at all.
So yes, you can call these portals a new layer of mediation, or they could be seen as reclaiming control. I agree that in some ways it could be view as a backward step, except that we can still do it all from our computers. And we can still stumble on things--I find more interesting links through my network on del.icio.us than with google, during most searches. Another alternative that never seems to have gotten very far though, is the meta-search engine. For a brief time, dogpile seemed like it was going to be great, but then it just disappeared. Best, Kim # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
