Intro to Digital Age

According to Batelle, search is not merely the act of looking for something on the Internet.  It may have started as such, but as it continues to grow search has become a combination of media, technology, pop culture, and marketing.  It can be used to take a snapshot of culture at a specific moment in time through the use of tracking sites like Google’s zeitgeist.  It has also generated huge revenues for companies that understand and use the power of advertising with search.  Google revolutionized search based on the concept of page ranking.  Previous methods of search followed links from one page to another.  They did not emphasize the importance of backlinks.  Larry Page, co-founder of Google, developed a tool that discovered backlinks and used that information to rank sites based on the importance of sources.  Google’s success was advanced through advertisements using the Internet’s current business model. 

Batelle touched on the concept of Google News in The Search.  According to Batelle, news information has become a conversation through the use of blogs, e-mail, and various websites.  Batelle’s view is similar to Gillmor’s in that the news industry changed after the events September 11.  The Internet became a major source for news information, and Google responded with a news service that allowed users to find and read stories that were unobtainable due to traffic overload on other sites.  This event points out the tremendous asset of a search engine – the ability to capture information and produce it for anyone on demand.  I think that Google realizes this asset and is prepared to further utilize it in the future through news service and other personalized services.   

In his book The Search, Batelle argued that search will become more about understanding in the future, rather than simply finding.  I agree with this statement because of the way search engines are used in everyday life.  Batelle mentioned the implications search has for marketing in the future and the way it could affect our lives.  From local search replacing the yellow pages to TiVo replacing the television guide, search will give people the ability to personalize the information they receive.  In return, advertisers will be able to successfully reach the demographic they seek.  Search has definitely changed the American economy and business industry.  It has successfully linked media, technology, pop culture, and marketing to form a major source of information and business exchange.