RDMillner’s Weblog

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I started these readings expecting to learn about how search engines work. I honestly expected to read some technical jargon about how search engines do their thing.

I actually took away something about how I look for information on the web.

I remember when I first starting using the internet, back when I had to walk two miles through the snow up hill both ways to get in line for the 28.8 kbs modem. Way back then, the first thing I would do to find something was to type it into a web address. A few awkward conversations with my parents and some groundings after they found adult content in the history and I realized that typing in www._____.com probably wasn’t the best way to do things. So I found search engines.

The best methods out there were engines that searched multiple search engines at once. I used them but I never became fluent in them. They were a tool that I was forced to use. Google changed that. They made search engines better and now thats primarily what I use.

But it took more than Google’s website. When I bought my first Mac, it came with Apple’s Safari browser built in. In the top right corner of the browser, there is a Google search bar. I don’t even have to go a website now. I can search while my homepage is loading. And I do. I use that built-in search bar for every little request. I don’t even think about where something could be, I immediately search for it.

I think thats the magic of search engines. They appeal to the laziness in people. The Internet saves us from going to the library for data and search engines save us from thinking about where that data is. The billion dollar question is: what comes next? How can they make more data closer to our fingertips?

The technological feats outlined in this weeks articles are neat. Some of them, like getting directions or finding places to eat via your phone or a personal fabricator, are cool and useful. Some are sort of creepy, like having entire relationships via SMS or sending people blank messages to get a response. Some, like the guy who rigged his doorbell up to phone so he could see who was coming, just make me wonder why. Why was the recurring question that came to me throughout this weeks readings.

Why are these things necessary? Have we reached a point where we have to be connected EVERY second? Have people forgot how to breath without their cell phones? You can’t even use the phrase “cut the cord” because all these things are cordless. I guess I don’t understand why other people are so attached to their mobile devices.

I take my phone most places. When my best friend is on a break from work, we spend that half hour texting. But I also turn my phone off on a regular basis. Most nights my phone is either off or on vibrate in the other room. Depending on where I’m going, I’ve even been known to leave it in the car. And there are no games on my phone. My phone is my primay means of communication to everyone, but its still only a tool. I don’t let it govern my life and I hope I never get to that point. So I guess I don’t understand why people need their phones to do everything. If anyone can explain that to me, please do.

Oh, and if anyone knows how Japan and Finland got to be the centers of cell phone technology I would love that explained too. I keep searching for things that would tie these together but I’m coming up blank.