Search and People Power

I just want to start off with "WOAH"! That documentary was super insightful. I'm not sure if I feel this way solely because I am a mass communication major, but I firmly believe that anyone who wants to be able to use the web to their best advantage (which is everyone these days) should really learn about the history of it and understand where it came from exactly.  These videos did just that.

One of the things I found to be most interesting was the competition between Yahoo and Excite to be the number one search engine which ended with Google being the victor. This is a perfect illustration on how the internet really is a world of it's own to which outside precedents hold no sort of standing. Outside of the web, the more flashy something is, the more attractive it is to us, naturally.  But, with the internet, less is always more.  Who cares if a site has fancy features if it isn't true to what it was created to do.  This is why companies like Google and Apple have had such amazing success.  Simplicity is key.

Another thing that I found to be interesting is how one website really changed the way people interacted. Music is a big passion of mine so naturally I would be interested in the Napster portion of the video.  But I found it truly amazing that this one website, that was meant to share music, really defined internet communities. The whole idea of communication via web really sprang from this website.  Now, in 2012, there are so many modes of communication: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Myspace and the list goes on. It's crazy to think how far it's actually come. To Illustrate this, I've added a video: A World Without Facebook.  It's from 2011, so the facts may have changed a little, but you get the point!