An archive of long conversations we’ve never had

Justin Hall on how the personal Web can help with matchmaking:

“…if you see someone who you like through the smoke and noise online, and you can saunter over and stand at a slight distance and watch them to see how they carry themselves, to read their tone of voice, to observe their links and interests. In a way, personal websites are like personal advertisements, or a way to circumvent the matchmaker. ‘We have a girl for you — she likes cooking french food, curling up with her Game Boy Advance, and watching Transformer cartoons,’ except you hear it from the girl herself. If you can find someone with a rich site, you can study up on them and the conversation can start on some strong common-interest footing. It helps if you have a website too, I think, otherwise the online-information-sharing might be tough one-way. What are they going to read while you’re sleeping?”

Justin nails why the Web is so engaging despite not being a face-to-face medium. Anyone who meets me online — including possible friends, fellow Web design enthusiaists, or potential employers — has access to 4+ years of my thoughts before they even have to strike up a conversation. That’s damn powerful stuff.