Back in the early days, there were many libraries, and all of them had the same books. However, they each had different ways to help you navigate the stacks. Then a new library started, which totally obliterated the Dewey Decimal System and got you to the right shelf faster and easier than anyone else. After 20 years, nearly all other libraries had gone out of business because most people used the speedy library.
Having achieved dominance, the librarian decided that the library itself, rather than the books inside, was the key draw. So he started to write his own, lower-quality books on all the same topics and place them on a giant shelf that sat in front of the regular stacks. He wasn’t an expert on any particular topic, so these books were just weak paraphrases or sometimes word-for-word copies of the original source material. But he figured that, since nearly everyone came to and trusted his library, the readers would grab whatever was on the front shelf and be happy with it. They’d stay in the library longer, where he could sell them pens, coffee and donuts. Did he succeed? Google’s about to find out.
