this excellent short piece by jeff jarvis outlines how the architecture of the web is changing, from a collection of websites-as-destinations (each with their own homepage) to a network of feeds:
now that content is distributed this way - displayed in many places, next to others' content - this begins to collapse the notion of destinations on the web. It makes us see the web less as self-contained sites and more as networks. This essential change in the ecosystem of the web is what inspired CBS TV in the US to serve its video in many places; YouTube is its friend (even as CBS' corporate cousin, Viacom, is suing the service). Said CBS interactive president Quincy Smith: "We can't expect consumers to come to us. It's arrogant for any media company to assume that." Right.
