“The space-based web we currently have will gradually be replaced by a time-based worldstream.”
Posted: Tue May 27, 2025 7:09 am
Marshall McLuhan, the oracle of the electronic age, once said “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror” and “We march backwards into the future” . A thought that has been proven many times in the information age. Just think of the famous desktop with the trash can on it and a website that is presented as a number of pages from a book.
The end of the web as we know it
In early February 2013, David Gelernter published an op-ed piece “ The End of the Web, Search, and list to data Computer as We Know It ” in Wired magazine, in which he argues that the time has come to say goodbye to the metaphors of the past. According to Gelernter, the way people consume the Web is changing.
Now the web is still an endless catalogue in which everything and everyone has its own place. Thanks to RSS, Twitter, Facebook etc., we see a change taking place. No longer is 'space' the model for how we think about the internet. All information will soon be displayed in a time-bound structure.
Think about the difference between a website and an application like Twitter. A website is static. Just like a book. It doesn't change much, if at all. But Twitter's content is constantly changing. It's no wonder that Twitter CEO Dick Costelo said the following about his product in an interview with the Los Angeles Times :
“Twitter is heading in a direction where its 140-character messages are not so much the main attraction but rather the caption to other forms of content.”
The end of the web as we know it
In early February 2013, David Gelernter published an op-ed piece “ The End of the Web, Search, and list to data Computer as We Know It ” in Wired magazine, in which he argues that the time has come to say goodbye to the metaphors of the past. According to Gelernter, the way people consume the Web is changing.
Now the web is still an endless catalogue in which everything and everyone has its own place. Thanks to RSS, Twitter, Facebook etc., we see a change taking place. No longer is 'space' the model for how we think about the internet. All information will soon be displayed in a time-bound structure.
Think about the difference between a website and an application like Twitter. A website is static. Just like a book. It doesn't change much, if at all. But Twitter's content is constantly changing. It's no wonder that Twitter CEO Dick Costelo said the following about his product in an interview with the Los Angeles Times :
“Twitter is heading in a direction where its 140-character messages are not so much the main attraction but rather the caption to other forms of content.”