This paper examines key developments of the Information Age, focusing on how Google search works and whether it resembles finding a needle in a haystack, how the 19th-century library system compared in efficiency, and the sweeping changes the Information Age has brought over the past century. It also evaluates Wikipedia's mission — assessing both its remarkable success as an open, multilingual, freely accessible knowledge repository and its well-documented vulnerabilities to inaccuracy and editorial manipulation. The paper concludes that while tools like Google and Wikipedia represent extraordinary advances in human communication and information-gathering, scholarly researchers must use them with care and critical judgment.
The 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 twenty years ago but are now widely used realities.
Searching for information on Google both is and is not like trying to find a needle in a haystack — and whether the 19th-century library was more efficient depends on several factors. At first glance, searching Google is certainly like hunting for 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 search the entire Internet, the volume of information retrievable from a single search phrase is staggering.
However, three factors can make a Google search far more precise: PageRank, web crawlers, and a carefully crafted search phrase. Despite the fact that Larry Page and Sergey Brin began developing Google when Yahoo, AltaVista, 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 crawlers allow Google to continuously index web pages through an Index Server, organize them with "snippets" of information, and present them to users via PageRank, which lists pages according to what Google determines the searcher is most likely seeking. Rather than pulling unindexed, unranked information from across the entire Internet, Google indexes and ranks pages, making it more likely that searchers will find what they want (Anonymous, Introduction to Computer Literacy | Chapter 6 | The search is on, 2012, p. 9).
In addition to these Google tools, a searcher's own skill in narrowing the scope of a query — through Boolean searching and carefully worded phrasing — can refine results even further (Anonymous, Introduction to Computer Literacy | Chapter 6 | The search is on, 2012, pp. 5–6). By contrast, the 19th-century library was less efficient than Google because of a general lack of indexing: Melvil 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).
The Information Age is perhaps the greatest of all revolutions to date. The term "revolution" refers to a drastic change, and within the span of 1912 to 2012 alone, humanity witnessed the creation of computers, the Internet, e-mail, search engines, Web 1.0, and Web 2.0, among many other developments (Anonymous, Introduction to Computer Literacy | Chapter 7 | Web 2.0, 2012, pp. 2–13). One need not speak with someone who is a hundred years old to appreciate the stunning advances of the Information Age.
Consider someone who attended college in 1975 and had to write a research paper. That student would have needed to: research answers using the Dewey Decimal System and physically locate library books in a brick-and-mortar library; type the paper on a typewriter and make corrections with correction fluid or correction tape; manually format the entire paper; manually compile and type the bibliography; and check spelling and grammar by hand. By contrast, writing an academic paper today involves downloading course materials digitally, searching the Internet for related information within minutes, typing on a computer that automatically formats pages and citations, and relying on built-in spellcheck to catch errors. Even the relatively routine task of writing a college paper has become so dramatically faster, more accurate, and more user-friendly that it represents a mini-revolution within the larger Information Age revolution.
"Open access benefits versus scholarly unreliability"
The explosion of information-gathering and communication through the Internet was hardly imaginable a century ago. Nevertheless, significant developments such as e-mail, Google, and Wikipedia are now well-developed and widely used. These tools do require careful judgment, however, and scholarly researchers must use them judiciously.
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