With a technology industry being scolded about needing to help create rain, out comes a very pivotal website link that only verifies that the work of angels deserves recognition and rewards from those who profit from materialism.
This week's desktop search frenzy is much bigger than the desktop. It actually signals the beginning of a fundamental shift in the way we will interact with information.
The Legacy Of...The Folder
Many of us want to keep things "organized." We want to put the right files in the right folders so we'll be able to find them later. We want to organize our vacation photos. We want to organize our music (sometimes autobiographically). We want to put our desktop things on our Desktop, and our documents in the Documents folder. The folder itself provides the metadata that, in theory, helps us to effectively locate what we're looking for when we need it later.
We think this way because the tools that we were given to store and locate information were based on the metaphor of a set of hierarchical folders. It's the script we've been given.
Distributed creation of content, however, broke this. When millions of people are creating content (whether in the form of web pages, blogs, or what have you), only a miniscule fraction of those people will go through the laborious step of explicitly stating how that information should be organized. The DMOZ, for example, states categorization of approximately four million web sites -- while Google lists over eight billion pages (yes, one is counting "sites," the other is counting "pages," but there's still a three-order-of-magnitude difference here...work with me). Organizing things is a pain. Let's not forget that Yahoo! started out as a directory which, although it still exists, has been depreciated and now only fills a minor role in the Y! universe.
When things got too massive, messy, and organic for the folder approach, search stepped in to fill the gap.
The Nearest Node
Until the desktop search tools started showing up, there was always an implicit distinction between things that were "local" and things that were "on the web," one primary difference being in how you located those things when you needed them. That difference has effectively vanished. And with that change, I would contend the Folder's days are numbered.
It is only a matter of time before the "flatness" of the web becomes mirrored in how people use their local systems, and maybe even in how those systems are organized. With a solid desktop search engine, why should I bother to put things in folders anymore? I can put everything in one place, and the search engine will find it for me. My job just got easier.
I no longer think of my machine as a separate entity from the Internet. It just happens to be the nearest node.
Next Steps
Of course, this only works well for things that are easily indexable. The images that are fairly flying from camera phones will still need to be indexed, as will the podcasts and the videos and all the other "rich media" out there. That is, until someone figures out a cost-effective way to automatically extract and index metadata from these types or artifacts*. (Hey Virage, are you listening?) I suppose in a way, Google's library project today is an extension of this as well -- a library itself is rich media, isn't it?
* - Thing to watch for: when "search" finds a way to effectively mine existing relational databases as well, in lieu of SQL
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Member Comments
Indexing is definately the solution for many of the new number intensive webmarkets for downloads of
thousands of different songs, flicks, items, parts, etc. The trick is seeing the value in the purchase of
a suitable solution before you start doing it the old way, then having to do it twice. pcmagazine on line for
instance gives very good reviews of many current products. there are always new ones coming out in
cameras, digital film and editing equipment, even apple related product, etc.
Organization can be seen as a pain, but lack of organization causes anxiety and even strokes and potencial
heart attacks. The trick of the matter is not intellectualizing the process you have to do. Don't think about
it- just outline a proper sequence and start doing it. It becomes a meditative activity, and eventually you
look forward to doing it, that is, as long as you make sure to cover issues such as backup, copying your
information files, security, and so on. But you can't live without it. Notice how the energy is more balanced
when indexing has been in play. The huge aggregators, like the old phone directory folks- took on huge
challenges but have to be done. They must have alot of tricks and ways to speed up development.
How do that do all of it? Awesome! Like something impossible, but has been obtained. That is not an example
how humans fall naturally into chaos, but rather organization. its been around a long time.
Desktop search seems like a solution in search of a problem. I have no trouble finding things on my personal PC. It seems to be of most interest to Yahoo, Google and Microsoft who are looking for even more ways to aggregate and advertise to loyal users.
IT Facts
ANGELS KNOW ABOUT SCALAR ELECTROMAGNETICS FOR RAIN
This week's desktop search frenzy is much bigger than the desktop. It actually signals the beginning of a fundamental shift in the way we will interact with information.
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