Robert Scoble started off a bit of a debate online when he lashed out at some prominent blogs for not linking to his content, and to other bloggers on the web.
“It’s interesting how everyone links to the New York Times, who of course doesn’t link to blogs, but very few bloggers will link to another blogger who got access to something they didn’t.”
Many issues came up in the debate, but it centered on how sites like Engadget would link to established media, but not to Scoble, who had an exclusive video regarding breaking news. The debate kept going on Scoble’s blog, and all over the web.
As more content, and more content creators come online, growing pains such as this will be felt. Robert is very well known, and while his original issue was a bit self-serving, he makes a good point. How will the best and most relevant sources for information be found and linked to online. Is this the goal? Where do social politics come into play? And as one commenter on Robert’s blog notes, what about the untold number of bloggers who write and have no one read them?