¶ … Internet is arguably the greatest revolution in Human History. In considerably less than a century, information-gathering and communication have skyrocketed with no apparent end in sight. Google and Wikipedia are merely two examples of Internet developments that were probably unimaginable even 20 years ago but are widely-used realities today. Searching for information on Google IS and IS NOT like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Was the library of the 19th century more efficient? Explain.

The answer to this question depends on several factors. At first blush, searching for information on Google is certainly like "trying to find a needle in a haystack" because "Some people have suggested that there are 155 million Web sites, 1 trillion Web pages, and 5 million terabytes of data out there" (Anonymous, Introduction to Computer Literacy | Chapter 6 | The search is on, 2012, p. 8). Since Google allows a person to research the entire Internet, the amount of information that could be retrieved from a simple search phrase is mind-boggling. However, there are three factors that can make a search for information on Google more precise: PageRank; Web Crawlers; and a carefully crafted search phrase. Despite the fact that Larry Page and Sergey Brin started developing Google when Yahoo, Alta Vista, Excite and Lycos were already operating as search engines, Google became the world's largest search engine by 2000 (Anonymous, Introduction to Computer Literacy | Chapter 6 | The search is on, 2012, p. 8). This popularity is due, in part, to the efficiency of PageRank and Web Crawlers, both developed by Google. Web...

Consequently, rather than merely pulling un-indexed, unranked information from across the entire Internet, Google indexes and ranks the pages, making it likelier that the searcher will find the information he/she wants (Anonymous, Introduction to Computer Literacy | Chapter 6 | The search is on, 2012, p. 9). In addition to these Google tools, the searcher's own skill in narrowing the scope of his/her search through Boolean searching and through carefully worded phrasing can even more carefully refine Googled search results (Anonymous, Introduction to Computer Literacy | Chapter 6 | The search is on, 2012, pp. 5-6). The 19th Century library was less efficient than Google because there appears to have been a lack of indexing: Dewey did not develop the simplified Dewey Decimal System until 1876 (Lynch & Mulero, 2007) and Paul Otlet's Universal Decimal Classification system was not even begun until the late 19th Century (Anonymous, Introduction to Computer Literacy | Chapter 6 | The search is on, 2012, p. 3).
3. The information age might very well go down as one of the most influential movements of the last century. The term "revolution" refers to a drastic change. In what ways in this information age so drastically different? Is it all good?

The Information Age is perhaps the greatest of all revolutions to date. Using the time span of 1912 -- 2012, we have seen…