Tom Freidman discusses the flatteners of the world. He talks about the things that have happened in the world that has helped to bring the world closer together. The flattener that has had the most impact on the world is the informing. This is the flattener that involves Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, Bing, and every other web search engine out there. This “Informing” flattener has allowed anybody from anywhere to look up an answer to any question. Whether it is a boy scout in the woods googling “safe plants to eat” or a tourist in New York searching for the best restaurant. It just makes life easier. So easy and so popular in fact, that when I type “googling” it is an allowable word by English standards.
Need to know how to get to your friends house? Google it. Trying to find a new job? Ask it. Looking for an interesting news headline? Use MSN. Looking for something to purchase that you can’t find in any neighborhood stores? Get on Bing, the most specific search aid of them all. These are just a few basic uses of these search engine powerhouses. They can find anything you could imagine. If it’s on the internet, then it’s searchable. Kind of scary to a point though. If everything is searchable, then everything can be found. So those embarrassing pictures your friend took of last Friday night when you got a little out of control? Yeah, your future employer can find them, your parents can find them, your kids will be able to find them. They just have to look hard enough.
The good news is that all the knowledge you can possibly imagine can be found at your fingertips, a few short presses on a touchscreen phone and you can settle the debate you are having with your roommate. No more finding and asking 15 random people for a definitive answer to a question when you can just simply ask the genius computer system behind the simple Google search bar.
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