Hillis, I think, is the one who says something along the lines of “the interface becomes the reality.” (Maybe it’s not Hillis, maybe it’s a bunch of people; whatever.) I think in the blogging world, that has definitely become the case. A link isn’t just a link: it’s an indication of friendship and respect. I recently removed my blogroll, figuring people could more effectively draw on my public Bloglines account to see what I’m reading. I actually got complaints about this, because it directly effects people’s Technorati rating.

Can anyone say “second-order system”? The tools meant to measure importance or significance are now gamed as a routine sort of thing. The idea that links implied endoresement has always been flawed, but by making that assumption, I have a feeling many Web authors now include that calculus in the process of deciding to make a link.