Shelf space is everything. And in the Information Age, shelf space means attention space. Attention is everything, celebrity is everything. The next case is the Net. Oh, come on.
Publishing is more than printing, and more than posting on the Web.
Everyone knows this, even the pundits. Certainly the Webmasters know it - and when they seek your attention they do what pitchmen have always done, they raise their voices, to amplify their presence. Steadily increasing cacaphony, along with ever worsening visual pollution. More and more Web pages that you're trying to read bombard you with little dancing figures, ticker tapes, floating icons, squalling cartoon characters, animated people, and so forth. No, it is not great.