Google: Search Your World

Frank Sinatra once said “I’ve got the world on a string.” At the time, it was purely metaphorical. Today, realistically speaking, he’s relatively out of date. No disrespect to Frank, but a string…how 1990’s of him. Thanks to our friends over in Mountan View, California, we don’t even need that “string” to have the world around our finger–more like at our fingertips. But in fear of sounding condescending, it wasn’t all that long ago that that the idea of having the world on a string was but a daydream.

Less than 20 years ago, Google developed an algorithm–just your typical “geek speak” used by the computer gurus that essentially means “operation process”—that revolutionized the way people viewed the world on the internet. While most search engines, such as Yahoo—and forgive my lack luster description—ranked websites based on relevant words present on the page—for example: “best pizza in Orlando”. Soon enough, companies were shoving those “hot topics” down our throats, just so that they could make it to the top of the search list. Google on the other hand, created a search engine that ranked websites based on their popularity—or credibility, if you will. So rather than having spam-like sites at the top, you had legitimate sources that earned their top slot by other people’s confidence in their content, and linking to the site on their own page.

This idea of utilizing other people’s confidence in a site to determine value was only stimulated with the colossal onset of social media. Now you had the general public critiquing and sharing their opinions on everything from a meatloaf recipe to a hotel they stayed in. With these social changes affecting the way people view the world, and make decisions, Google has decided to harness its power, and run with it.

Last week, Google announced a new addition to their search engine called “Search Your World”. Along with its current “page-rank” algorithm, Google will offer you the option to search with a new algorithm—one that allows you to pull references from the world reservoir and your world. “Huh?”—that’s what I thought…here’s a video that was provided by Google on the day they announced their new addition:

You see, now you can view what the World is saying about your search, and what life experiences your network shared along with it. So now if one of my friends decides to Google “Croatia”, in hopes of determining their next summer vacation, a Twitter image of me posing above the city of Dbrovnik will appear; along with maybe an article of Prince Harry partying in Hvar, posted on a friends’ Blog.

I love the idea of aggregating the knowledge of the world and the opinons of my friends—well, most of my friends.

“What a world, what a life—I’m in love.” – Frank Sinatra