Now what did he mean by that?


Yes, it was almost ten years ago that Bill Gates wrote that Content is King - an article that can still be found on his official web site. Bill Gates bashing is such an easy sport that I have to admit to feeling a bit uncomfortable allowing myself to partake in it, but sometimes I suppose I just can't help myself, and this time is one of those.

Even more than today, ten years ago Gates was in a position to pontificate, to have even his random musings published as accepted gospel. Content is King was a rambling essay of over 1000 words in which Gates essentially told us that the internet was going to be a great place to make money, even if at the time just how that was going to happen was far from clear. The key (you guessed it, though it's worth noting that not everyone agreed) was content - putting out a product that people would be willing to pay for.

Gates opens with a winning sentence that sets the stage for what's to come:
Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.
From this opening we're invited to a series of short musings in classic technical writing fashion, none of which tell us much about the content that Gates sees as being so essential. He does give us a slight overview of a possible future micropayments scheme, though it seems that the wonders of reader-specific niche advertising, something that I'm quite sure was taking off when the article was written, aren't mentioned at all. Gates also tells us that:
Over time, the breadth of information on the Internet will be enormous, which will make it compelling.
I admit that this might be considered nitpicking (though of course it's hard to resist doing that with one of the world's richest people) but among the dictionary definitions that I can find for compelling, I'm hard-pressed to understand why the fact that the "breadth of information" in cyberspace is enormous necessarily also makes it compelling. As someone who in retrospect often wishes I'd chosen my words somewhat differently, I can't really figure out why Gates would have chosen that one, other than the fact perhaps, that although he is ostensibly writing about content (which can be compelling) he seems more concerned with size and volume which are, instead, dominating, even to the point of subjugating whatever real content there may be.



Go to: Content? Did somebody mention content?