The use of search engines in locating information has become so central to our daily lives that it is hard to imagine a world where one cannot simply google driving directions just before heading out to the car. This availability of information, unprecedented in human history, is still a new concept, yet it has revolutionized the way we live, even in our humdrum, day-to-day activities. Need a new recipe in time for dinner? Conduct a search (and forward it to [email protected]!). Forgot your anniversary and need a gift by tomorrow morning? Piece of cake. Its become second nature to not only snatch instantaneous solutions from the Internet, but to trust that they will be there.
Just because weve so readily accepted search doesnt mean anyone thinks its fully developed. I offer only your typical financial headlines: Google does this, Yahoo does that, Exxon searches for oil everybody searches! Tech advances beget tech advances and search is still a work in progress, a particularly interesting work in progress.
The concept of search need not even be limited to alphabetical means. Microsoft is firing imaginations with image searchfor more imagery. ...