I was recently involved in a debate regarding the size of the indexable web (World Wide Web). Do any of you have any idea? Well I'm here to tell you that apparently the experts don't either... or I should say they have only an estimate. They estimate that Google indexes just 3.3 billion pages - or approximately 1% of the total web. Can you dig it!? I mean the deep thing is that following a tumultuous debate, we did arrive at the formula used to make that estimate, yet all were left without comfort in the knowledge that no one knows exactly. This is similar to the statistical sampling model used by demographers in estimating populations. I was left scratching my head thinking; "this can't be!" Here is an imprecise example similar to the photograph offered us by our professor.
The most trippy thing about the estimate is that at this moment experts believe there are approximately 360 billion web pages on the web today (and remember there are ostensibly 6 billion people on the planet). Furthermore, in 1998, it was estimated that no single search engine covered more than a third of the web. I won't bore you anymore with the balance of the details resulting from that discussion... just wanted to share that with you as a foundation for what I am going to say next.
This has all kinds of consequences for the ways in which we search for information (and ideas), couple it, trust it, etc. Remember there is a difference between information and knowledge. For instance, I read an article in the Journal of Information Processing and Management by Jansen Spink et al. that argued among other things that 84.9% of the identical searches executed using the 4 major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and MSN), the returned results on the first page were unique to each of the search engines. Moreover, only 1.1% were shared by all four search engines. This was out of a total of 485,460 searches. I was like; "What the #$%?" Now that is what I call a problem... expecially when most people use only one search engine to forage for information. (for a series of interesting links regarding search behaviour check out this site)
As if that weren't bad enough... our discussion turned toward what are considered by information scientists to be Googleholes and Yahoo Gaps. Now I'm not talking about the Google Data Theft Scare a few years ago. In case you didn't have the time to follow the links, Googleholes are three areas where Google is biased to return search results: commercial sites, synonym variants, and online papers (pdf's, etc.) not books. This information began to cascade, seriously disturb me, and simultaneously challenge my concept of information victim! smile All things considered, Google remains (in my humble opinion) the best search engine created to date. If you are interested in understanding how it performs its magic, please check out the original paper presented by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page that details the algorithmic approach (it will really make you wish you had a time machine!).
Hold on. It gets better. I promise... I have an objective! =^)
By now most people have heard of Stanley Milgram's Small World Experiment from the 1950's and 60's from which we derive the "Six Degree's of Separation" cliche. Well, in 2002, a cat named Barabasi wrote a book called Linked: The Science of Networks, wherein he argued among other things that on average - on the internet every page is just 19 clicks away from any other page. A must read for my fellow geeks out there...
Now. To the point of my blog today. Although most people would be hard pressed to note the difference, there is a big difference between Web 2.0, and Internet2. One is a consortium, and the other is a content driven concept.
So much of what we appear to be entering (informationally) at this point is exactly what another abused cliche attempts to describe: Postmodernism. Some would sarcastically consider the modern era dystopic, post capitalism, post industrial, post apocalyptic, or some other frightening synonym.
I do agree with postulates of each. There are components of each in our modern ecosystem. I am no fan of many. I do not subscribe to cable television, and you all know by now I am a proponent of what I affectionately term "Telecide." Yes. I am an advocate for the cold blooded murder of television as we know it. I am left with a sense of foreboding and anxiety at every exposure. The churning images, scrolling graphics, animated advertisements, and talking heads (all simultaneously melding into an unrecognizable horrorscape) fill me with an overwhelming sense of helplessness and disorientation! lol ...and I do not enjoy feeling helpless, disoriented, or cognitively burdened. What Frank Webster termed; "...the soft compulsion of consumption training," and "...lowest common denominator diversion."
However, something altogether different is unfolding on the World Wide Web. Call it the evolving "info-sphere," the democracy of information, or the revenge of the nerds. Our old info-sphere is being replaced. Instead of being stable - it is now dynamic and ephemeral; instead of mostly print - it is now multi media; instead of being exclusively scholar authored - everyone is now a player; instead of being centralized - it is now distributed and ubiquitous. I welcome this brave new world! There are drawbacks of course... and many of these potential pitfalls can be derived (in my opinion) by considering several of my earlier statements.
I will reserve the balance of my comments for any response/inquiries posted here below. At this moment, this blog has become too long, and I am going to be late for class. So I will leave you with the purpose of this blog. The video.
Enjoy. I look forward to an information exchange with any and all who care to discuss! =^)
Ciao,
C.
And now I give you... Web 2.0!
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