Stephen Downes

The basis for the 'Costco theory of the internet' is that "More results stop helping once the results are polluted. Reviews that are fake, incentivised, or written by people with no standards don't improve by multiplying." Just look at Amazon listings or Google search results for proof. Buyer beware! Even the brand names are fake. Costco addresses that. "A trusted operator narrows the field first, making the choices in advance and accepting the cost of everything it leaves out. Then it absorbs the complexity, doing the dull part before you get there: testing, comparing, rejecting, negotiating, standardising. Then it holds the floor. It doesn't have to make every item extraordinary, it only has to clear the obvious junk." I can see the point but this article was a lot to wade through, making the same point over and over. It would have been eliminated by Costco. Via Grant Potter.