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$title = "Google: A Brain Extension";
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Over the last few days a subtle error on the part of our home's
gateway to the Internet rendered <A href="http://www.Google.com/">Google</a>
inaccessible. I was in agony. I was unable to write reports and actually
felt rather stupid without it. I then realized I had effectively undergone
a temporary lobotomy: Google is a part of my brain.
<p>
For those of you unfamiliar with the website, they are the
web's finest. It's hard to really describe exactly how delightfully
accurate Google is at finding information above and beyond other
search engines, like <a href="http://www.altavista.com/">altavista</a>
(and their <A href="http://www.ragingsearch.com/">Google clone</a>),
<a href="http://www.hotbot.com/">HotBot</a>,
<a href="http://www.excite.com/">Excite</a>,
<a href="http://www.lycos.com/">Lycos</a>, or
<a href="http://www.northernlight.com/">Northern Light</a>. I would
recommend simply trying a few searches on each. Any single example I
can give you you might claim was contrived, so go do it yourself.
<p>
Google loads quickly, finds relevant results, and has a clean layout
that lets your eyes rest on the data; not some blinking advertisement.
Google, unlike <b>any</b> of the other "search portals," is not
"sticky." They have been criticized heavily by investors for it,
but the short of it is that they are not trying to distract you from
what you're looking for: they want you to get there! In fact, they
even have a "I'm Feeling Lucky" button to take you right to the first
site that matched your request without popping up a search results page
at all.
<p>
No, I'm not paid by Google. I'm just a rabid fan. Strangely enough,
so is everyone else who has come to their yet-to-be-advertised website.
Even my mother, not generally one to "ooh" and "aah" at web technologies,
let out a gasp after doing her first search on Google.
<p>
Why rant and rave about a search engine, though?
Becuase it is tantamount to the success of the Internet as a whole that
search engines work well. <A href="http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158904.html">A recent article on Newsbytes</a> indicated that as many as two million
people in the UK alone have stopped using the Internet regularly because it
was too difficult for them to find the information they wanted! Without
search engines, the Internet becomes impossible to navigate.
<p>
The Internet makes it possible for just about
all participants to publish profuse quantities of information. That is
important and allows for a truly democratic medium. The problem is in
filtering: everyone should have a say, but those with particularly
interesting things to say should be heard. Specifically, if you are
looking for them, or the things that they are talking about, you should
be able to find their information.
<p>
When a search engine works well, it becomes more than a web page that
can find things. In combination with high-speed, always-on Internet
access, it becomes an extension of your brain. In conversation, in reading,
and in private thought, a new term or concept can be quickly discovered
and researched, allowing users to become instant experts in broadly
diverse areas.
<p>
This really is what I think was imagined by Diderot and his Renaissance-era
contemporaries when they put together
<a href="http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/9/0,5716,108519+2+106030,00.html">the first modern encyclopedias</a> - a vast, accessible index
of human knowledge made even more vast and even more accessible by
modern technology. Douglas Englebart, the inventor of the computer mouse,
hyperlinking, and drag-and-drop, envisioned
the computer as a prosthetic addition to the human mind, capable of extending
human powers of recollection, organization, and communication. Google,
being effectively instantaneously available to anyone with a high-speed
network connection, is a prosthetic addition to our knowledge base. Just
glancing over at my roommate's compressed-air duster, I see that the
propellant used is <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=tetrafluoroethane">1,1,1,2 Tetrafluoroethane</a>; type, click, and now available to me are
chemical reference sheets, combustability tests, safety data, and
its molecular breakdown (C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub>F<sub>4</sub>), to name
a few of the immediately available references. Everything in my daily
life that boggles me or interests me can now be an avenue of discovery.
And when (or should I say <b>if</b>) I have any useful contributions to
make to our collective body of knowledge, I post it on my site and Google
automatically sucks it into its archive.
<p>
In short, by enabling the Internet to act as the human race's collective
body of knowledge, engines like Google enable us to advance faster,
learn faster, and contribute more usefully and plentifully to Mankind's
corpus of knowledge.
<p>
Let the second Renaissance begin!
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