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The Cultural Importance of Search Engines
Search engines just seem to well, be there. We don’t really think much about them. They’ve become in a way, an invisible technology in the sense that like a phone, they’re a tool we take for granted so deeply embedded in our lives as they are today. But search engines have had a much bigger influence on global cultures than we may realise.
Let’s explore the cultural importance and role of search engines. And how search is about to undergo a profound shift. One that will have significant impact on our species.
The first digital age search engine came through ARPANET, a basic, but functioning resource directory that created domains which could be categorised. These would allow the recognition of each computer connected to the internet (the World Wide Web didn’t exist yet). There weren’t billions of devices like today.
Why have search engines played such a significant role in our modern world? Because search is core to our survival as a species. It is the very first thing your brain does upon waking. We look out the window for the weather, just as we once looked out the cave entrance.
We smell for scents familiar and unfamiliar. We search to see if we are physically safe. With the arrival of the smartphone, we began to search for psychological threats and to be assured all is okay.
Smartphones ushered in another significant sociocultural change. Prior to smartphones, identifying threats and opportunities beyond the physical took a while. The earliest way we did this was through newspapers, then radio and television. This gave us time to wake up and evolve our day.
Today, within seconds we are aware of our physical and digital surroundings within seconds of opening our eyes. This is both good and bad, depending on what information you receive.
We spend out entire lives searching. And then there’s our search for information, which we assess and turn into knowledge through understanding. Humans are an information seeking and analysing species.
As we evolved, we began to record knowledge and to disseminate information. First through cave drawings. It was our first attempt to organise and manage information, turning caves into our first search engines and first knowledge management…
