The "Metagration" of the Web...and what it can mean for artists..

It only make sense that with the floods of content floating out there waiting to be surfed, there would be some better tools put in place for finding and organizing the content that interests you the most.

So how is content found today? I think it would be safe to assume that Google is the number 1 way people currently find content on the web that they’re looking for specifically. It works great. It will show me any content or any websites that even contain the keywords I’m looking for, but when it comes to using the search results for a specific function, Google isn’t always so specific. In other words, there’s many things Google can’t/doesn’t do.

Say I want to find some good new songs on my favorite music website. Since I obviously don’t know specifics about the actual content I’m looking for, I should stick to generalities, and things that I know I will like, but while still being as specific as possible(because I’m picky). I should be able to select genre/s, mood/s, and type in keywords in order to find the music I’m looking for. However the problem I may have here is that the website I search in might only search the keywords from a tag database of content on that website. That is really limiting.

For example, if I do a search for the word “Peace” it should show me not only every song that has Peace as a tag, or in the title, but it should search other data that may have a relationship to songs, like a song’s lyrics that can be found on a totally separate webpage. These links between content that is the same, and that can provide more info about a specific topic or piece of content, should be tied together, regardless of website integration, in order to deliver better search results. It’s kinda like a google search where the whole web is being searched, but with predefined filters, in this case, on type of content, artists that appear on that website, genre, mood and keywords/tags.

Essentially this is an advanced search performed from the site of interest, that offers a far more practical way of using the google search method, to meet a specific need like finding great new bands(that I like).  I call this linking of data with similar source material and using it to perform a specific function within an application, Metagration. Taking meta information and integrating it across unnecessary(but currently present) web boundaries is the key to relevant and successful searches. Connections between content should be made automatically in this way.

This may involve eventually classifying content as a specific type or kind of content. For example, there could be a song and a movie with the same name, and they also may both have some keywords in common, but they may be completely unrelated. This would be inconsequential if the title of the song on say the lyrics page could be “classified” somehow as a Song, so that when searched, the classification for this title will be taken into account as well.

A reorganization of the web like this is not easy however, since the question arises, who will implement these changes? There’s no web maintenance crews to come and upkeep the infrastructure, like with state highways, or an elected group of officials in charge of looking out for the best interests of the web..but maybe there should be..

All I know is that this kind of organization and integration could really benefit a lot of people in a number of different applications, and it’s obviously already been discovered(I’m sure I’m not the only one too), so I predict we will see this shift in the near future of the web. And if no one else does it..shit I will..because it has to happen sometime. What good is the web as a tool if it could be better, but isn’t? Take Down Those Walls!

Written by: Dante Cullari, Founder & President, Beat-Play, LLC

Comments

[MartinT]

I love posts that are relevant to my current thinking! :D

The web is in control of the developers/government, but leaving the government aside i don't think these future prospects you may be hoping for may happen. I'm not saying SEO['Search Engine Optimization' as that's what we are talking about here but i do like your term] is not going to change, because it will. Then it will change again and again for years to come....

What im saying is it's too straight of an idea to simply categorize your content as that's a job being missed out by development companies. Websites are part of business's and business's by themselves. They are so diverse and an example of this is having a forum on a band website. This will help with fresh content for search engines, help keywords be found for search engine optimization but because a community is speaking, there are going to be so many areas covered which will result [if said idea was in place] in that bands website NOT coming up for say photographs or information on bars as this could quite easily be a talkable topic in a google search by random Joe Bloggs.

What if people searched for something and it didn't come up because it was hiding in another category they thought it would never be in, but randomly was.

Learn Search Engine Optimization and beat the competition!

A tutor once told me "Being a good searcher of the internet is having an innovative understanding of the English Language" And she was spot on in my book!

[Justin Boland]

"A reorganization of the web like this is not easy however, since the question arises, who will implement these changes? "

Google.

This was a very interesting post, though. I've read many calls for centralized governance of the decentralized masterpiece before, but certainly never one with such a benevolent and utilitarian angle. It's quite true, music search is in total disarray right now...but I gotta say, I think you're being more than slightly disingenuous by ignoring all of your competition in this field, most of whom are better funded and further advanced than Beat Play, LLC.

You're not a lone voice in the wilderness, you're a small-time competitor that's behind the curve. There's been a lot of innovations in this field during the past 5 years and you wrote this whole article as if they didn't exist.