Post 4: Search Engines

How Google Changed Our Lives

Information has never been easier and quicker to find. We have access at our fingertips to greater technology than when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. Multiple people and inventions have been the cause of this rapid and intense change but there is one simple development that has completely changed the lives of the everyday American. 

Search engines. 

Well, before there were search engines, there were programs called “Archives”, nicknamed “Archies' ', which was created in 1990. It was used for File Transfer Protocol sites, meaning that it had a much more limited usage than the search engines we know and love today. They were mainly used for transferring files between computers that were on the same network. Unlike how we use search engines today, the archives were not typically used for finding information, however they were the stepping stone for having what we have today. 

Search engines have completely changed our access to information. The first search engine was World Wide Web which was fully developed with all accessories in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, however he started the project in 1989. He had a vision of how it could benefit everyday Americans by giving them the power to find out everything about anything. And he was right. 

After Berners-Lee, the next search engine to be developed was Internet Explorer in 1995. This program was developed by Thomas Reardon and his team at Microsoft. These search engines, along with all of the newer ones, were created with two important elements: index and algorithms. 

Search engine indexing is the collection, analysis, and storage of data in order to have a quick and accurate information retrieval. This process is how search engines are able to provide us information at such a rapid pace, while also having accurate information. This is how we get Search Engine Return Pages, SERPS, and when we scroll down on our list of findings, we can see how many pages of findings there are. Search engine indexing is also the tool that allows key words to be identified when a user plugs them into the search bar. 

Search engine algorithms play a different yet equally important role in the function of search engines. Algorithms are a series of curated formulas that help the computer decide what to show the user based on the accuracy in relation to the search. The ads or the content we see after searching up a topic is based on what the algorithm thinks we will like to see first. 

Our lives have forever been impacted by the invention of search engines and for the better. Think about all the time and energy we save by having the world at our fingertips and we have original creators to thank for that. But as the years have gone on, there has been one search engine in particular that that completely changed the game and created this empire for itself: 

Google. 

Google has taken charge of absolutely everything in regards to searching for information. Created in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin,

this search engine was created like all the others and with the same purposes; to provide a place for the people to quickly find accurate information. 

Google has turned into this huge empire with multiple different outlets, like Google News or Google Scholar. Google now also has items like Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos, all new sources to help us with the storage of information. Other search engines have also followed this model, like Microsoft, however, Google has seen more success, as it has more monthly users than Microsoft. 

While it's something that every American uses every day, using search engines and Google has become a passive activity. We don’t really recognize the importance it has to ourselves individually, but also to the function of society. Think back to your activities today; what would stay the same in your routine if Google did not exist?

. 

,