Stephen Downes

Roger Casselman sends along this link to a good analysis by John Hiler, one of the original visionaries of personal publishing. "If you examine Google's products closely," writes Hiler, "you may notice a surprising pattern: Google is attempting to organize the world's information without folders." This is a correct analysis and a correct strategy. The use of folders - and, indeed, any hierarchal system - breaks down after a few million items. This is as true for search as it is for business organizations.