Things have a way of changing quickly. When dealing with technology, there is a lot to consider.
Over the last half year, the latest crazy is chatbots. No doubt ChatGPT woke up the world to the potential. Since that time, most of the major tech players have rolled out their own versions. We now have Bard, Claude and a host of others.
This artificial Intelligence is being integrated into many of the platforms that are out there. It is driving adoption to a higher level as people start to see them in their favorite software.
It is, however, creating an interesting situation. We understand that some technologies have the ability to completely alter how we do things. Could these chatbots be in that category?
So far, the answer appears to be yes. We will see if the attention dies down. For the moment, it seems that many are turning to this technology to get the information they need.
This is causing a major disruption in the online world.
In this article we will uncover what could be taking place and how we might be affected.
{Source](https://pacso.org.uk/links/)
Search Engines
Search engines, specifically Google, have dominated the Internet. Essentially, these are the gatekeepers for information. If you are ranked high up, you will get visibility. The reverse is also true.
Companies and website owners spent a great deal of time (and money), trying to get their pages ranking well. There is an entire industry designed to teach people how to do this.
This all could be changing.
While most of the same players are into the chatbots, the need for traditional search might be ending. Even with integrated with search, the chat simply return the information. This means that people are not visiting the webpages themselves.
Here is where a major shift could be starting.
If our quest for information comes from the bots, this disrupts search. It also affects the websites themselves since the sites aren't being visited. Instead, what is on there is fed to the user via the bot.
Basically, there is no need to go through 3 or 4 websites looking for answers when simply using prompts on chat will provide what is needed.
Here is where it gets interesting.
The Importance of Links
To me, this means that it is crucial to capture someone when he or she lands on a page. While this was always the case, it is even more important.
In developing LeoGlossary, the thought dawned on me that, if information is simply being scarped, this will affect sites like Wikipedia. That said, it will not kill it since people can spend lifetimes bouncing around the billions of internal links it has.
Since that site was always a mental model I operated from, it stands to reason that we are now seeing how important links are. The ability to direct people to your own pages is crucial.
If they arrive at the site, it is best to make it easy for them to bounce around a while.
Again, this was always the case yet it might be taking on even more urgency due to chat being able to provide answers.
More Than Just Information
Part of the reason for the expansion in the scope of LeoGlossary is to provide more than just a database. Having a glossary is of benefit but, as we are seeing, it might be diminishing.
Information is still important and relevance in this area is in play. We all know that centralized entities can disappear at any moment so it is best to get things on the blockchain.
That said, more is required. With the expanded focus, we are seeing linking throughout everything that is developed. All pages are going to have terms linked. It is part of a much larger premise that enabled people to engage, something that is not presently done with the Wikipedias of the world.
Hive can offer a multitude of tools. There are some we are still waiting to be built. One that is on the required list is decentralized polls on blog posts. This is something that is essential for the movie and album pages. If we are going to set up something similar to IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes, then we need some form of voting.
Fortunately, we already have it on threads so there is an opportunity to get this designed.
It is best not to look where we are today. My focus is at least one year down the road with this next phase. This is going to require a lot of work, and more people joining the cause. However, there is a larger vision that can add great value.
Some things are already starting to fall into place. Over time, it will become clearer where things are heading.
For now, it is vital to get as many links, even if only internal, going as possible. It will end up making a difference.