Think about what is interesting to you when you do a search. Is it all about shoes? Technology? Music? Fashion? Sports? News? Games? Javascript trends?

Okay, maybe that last one is just us and nerds like us. The point is that we all have some specific interests that compell us to search and search again. What we are looking for is Fresh Content.

Content is Queen, not King, because content is the mother of the web whereas Al Gore was one of the many possible fathers of the web : Arpanet & NII along with Barry Shein : creator of The World, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of http protocols, and Ray Tomlinson: creator of email. The internet as we know it, started as a way for scientitsts and other researchers to share information quickly in a non-centralized, distributed fashion. This continues to be true as we answer all questions with it from queries like "what is the most environmentaly friendly clothing company" to "how I install a new distributor cap in my old Porsche"?

Your site is the home of your content. You could take away all the style and animations and social networking links and it would still be valuable to someone doing a search. Sometimes, it may make your site more valuable to remove extra wiggles and non-essential images so that a page is easier to read. Reading is much of what we do online. Sometimes a video is what people want, but often, the decision to take the time to watch something online requires too much bandwidth, both figurativey and literally. You have to know that the video you are watching is worth the investment of time and attention. Reading is less risky. You can scan for the information you want, get it, get out and get on with your day. Video is reserved for downtime, taking up more of your senses and attention.

Because of that, the creation of relevant written content is a priority for anyone with a site. We all know we should do it, and most of us don't have any extra time to. However, the payoffs are worth the trouble. Creating a blog entry for your site, or tweaking your news or about pages or taking the time to write compelling descriptions for your products improve your search engine rankings, increase the likelyhood that your page will be shared via social media, and help you refine and redefine what you are doing with your site. So the next time you find yourself on Facebook or Google+ just reading other people's content, think about what you are doing and consider spending some of that time drawing people to your own site with fresh new information. Do it for your Queen! (queue the fanfare).

- Jim

addendum August 2, 2021: For an interesting history of the internet, check this link: https://www.allconnect.com/blog/history-of-internet