The Fundamentals: Post, Search and Save

The three fundamental actions at the disposal of users within the emerging tech are post, search and save. While that may not sound like a profound insight, it’s important to consider the implications of these functions, explore the various guises they currently assume, and consider how our approach to these fundamental acts can strengthen our posture within this space.

Post

Post is push. Consolidated in this button is the power of the publisher. Post adds content into the system. Often the content is one’s own, but we need to recognize that sharing links and book marking is posting as well. For instance, within google reader, the share feature makes it possible to redistribute loads of content simply by pushing the button. And by adding rss feeds to our own content we extend the potential inherent in each of our posting acts.

Often we prefer to formulate our own content before we hit the post button. Whether that message is limited in form to a 140 character tweet, takes the form of a photo placed on flickr, or resembles a blog post like this one incorporating image and text, the crafting of messaging is all prelude to the power inherent in hitting the post/share/update/send/publish button.

Search

Search is pull. It retrieves data from the system. Billions of data packets are at our disposal if only we have the wherewithal to call them forth. And over the coming decades, the volume of information in the system will grow at a rate we really have no way of getting our heads around. As users, I’m concerned that we have collectively developed sloppy search habits which effectively weaken the power of this simple act. Imagine if we experimented crafting our searches with the effort we put into a blog post. Just as the messaging is a prelude to post, our queries are the prelude to search. I envision the development of search platforms that will cherish and share search queries much as we do favorite blog posts we find. (Perhaps this movement is underway. Do point it out to me if you know of any examples).

While all of SEO is geared toward the reality of our lazy approach to search, as users we have the ability to circumvent all the supply side efforts if we simply honor the power inherent in this function and expand our search practices. This means taking advantage of advanced search features, incorporating the Boolean search limitors, and realizing the value in assessing multiple search results.  I look forward to the day when our queries break free of the one word approach and develop into a supple grammar that will truly find any needle in the ever expanding haystack.

Save

Save is archive.  Gathering the content into places where it can be accessed at a later date means not depending on corporate entities to do this for you.  This requires tools that will aggregate all of your activity regardless of where it occurs and storing it securely.  While many see the value of self-hosting a blog, I am advocating the need to self-host the aggregation of all ones activity across different public platforms as well.  I’ve just added a lifestreaming page here by wordpress plugin.  Lifestreaming has an archival value that our current system fails to recognize.

User Advocacy

As web access becomes more and more ubiquitous, it seems like the time is ripe to focus our efforts on us.  It means putting our brains together to develop our practices in such a manner that fully utilize the potential inherent each and every time we engage the web.  User advocacy begins by strengthening our game.