First the similarity in the annotation, where Bush’s original vision was to help him in his research work and Google did the annotation with comments on the web. They both took advantage of the hypertext as a way to organize information. The difference is that Bush used hypertext for his research work at a small scale, while Google use the hypertext with the invention of the World Wide Web for the mass. There is no doubt that Google would join the blogging game. Another difference would be the spread of the information. With Tim Berners-Lee’s invention, anyone with the internet access can access information across the web from anywhere in the world. This might sound familiar as with the invention of the printing press, where there was a shift in knowledge sharing.
With the easy access of the internet, hypertext would spread out to other areas beside academic works like businesses, government, not-for-profit organization, etc. The risk here is the spread of false information across the web. Most the blogs has no peer review to validate the information. Google search makes those information spread much faster through their PageRank algorithm. The algorithm is best on the quality of the site such as details, media, images and so forth. It is not best on the accuracy of the information.
This leads the modern blogging tools like Medium, TikTok, Instagram and so forth. The nature of the blogging is the same to in 2003, however, the tendency of posting is different, especially user behaviors. Medium is a place where anyone can write with a threshold set by Medium in order to have their article posts. It still has the same problem, most of the blogs are base on opinion rather than analysis of data and research. In addition to that, images and videos have become the best way for documentation in almost all profession. It is fast and easy to do compare to writing a blog.
The change in behavior posts a great challenge in design work, because the base audience has been broaden to the globe. Other problems also comes along like climate change, cybersecurity, politics, misinformation, etc. That’s being said designer needs to stretch out to different areas to address both business and user problem.
The thinking that leads to your perspectives is precious. It’s worthy to discuss the essence and impact of these challenges born of the behavior change.
I also think personal posts (although not malicious for the most part) have become sort of a double edged sword as things like politics and misinformation (or fake news) are becoming a nuisance and certainly a challenge we face today.
You raised some discussion-worthy points about the challenge of today designer.