Why I love search engines By Amanda Jones Media Week | August 10, 2004 http://www.i-level.com/resource-centre/opinion-pieces/why-i-love-search-engines.asp How annoying is it to have the line of a song buzzing round your head and you can't remember the name, or indeed the artist? This happened to me the other evening and it was driving me mad. So I went online and put the lyric into Google's search bar � up popped the name of the song in the search results... Relief. Now, I know if I'd thought long and hard enough, the name of the tune would have eventually come to me, so maybe search engines make us lazy. Who cares. Isn't it great to have the answer to almost anything � no matter how important or trivial � at your fingertips? Search engines make me feel almost invincible in that sense. But, of course, we can't live our entire lives online and be entirely reliant on them for information. Can we? I was reading last year that Robbie Williams had accredited search engines with helping his sex life, while he was living in the US. For a while � perhaps still � he was relatively unknown. He would meet girls in bars and when he told them he was an international pop star they thought he was having them on. But, after the encounter, they "Googled" him (ie, they typed his name in, and found out that he wasn't such an unknown after all.) I love "Googling" people � what an amusing pastime it is. As the comedian and writer Dave Gorman will attest to. Search engines certainly empower us � not just in terms of the information they provide to us, but by the fact that we feel we can retrieve this information easily and anonymously, without having to involve anyone else. In the search business, we refer to the "anonymity threshold" of search. We consumers love the fact that it's a non-intrusive medium � even the advertising (sponsored listings) forms part of our request for information. In 2003, I started the daunting process of buying my first home. For a relatively wellinformed person I didn't know where to start � mortgages, surveys, etc. It was embarrassing how little I knew about it. I certainly didn't want to ask for outside assistance from my financial advisor or my solicitor, until I was a little less ignorant. A few searches later on Yahoo! and I was sorted, and ready to talk mortgage rates. I felt much less vulnerable. Of course, knowledge is a powerful thing, but search engines make it that much easier to become knowledgeable. They're rapidly replacing the local library, professional counselling, and even, to a lesser extent, our local GP as a sometimes invaluable resource of information and advice. I don't think such bodies should feel threatened by extinction, although we may save ourselves some money over the course of a lifetime � why pay for professional advice if you can find it via an online search? Rather, search engines may empower consumers to go and seek professional advice face-to-face, by providing them with enough information that they don't feel embarrassed by their level of knowledge around the particular topic. Search engines are now striving to convert searchers into customers. By developing additional products � for example, Google's new Gmail � the search engines are hoping that searchers won't need to go anywhere else online. I'm not sure how I feel about becoming a search engine's customer. Surely, the whole appeal is that they don't know who I am, that I can zip in and out of a search environment, get my information and go elsewhere. Some search engines are developing personalisation; where they keep a record of every search an individual � and that individual's community of friends � makes. Do I want people to know what I search for? Surely that's personal information? They might work out how little I actually know. And as for search-engine shopping, now I'm scared. I'm already too frightened to register on those auction websites for fear of frittering my disposable income away on the bargains I may find. Search engines are now a serious shopping experience � Kelkoo was recently bought by Yahoo!; Google's shopping engine, Froogle, goes from strength to strength. How will I resist? Will this take my love of search engines to another, more expensive level? For the time being though, I'm hooked. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Unbelievable Blog of the Week recommends: The Lincoln Fry Blog. Read all about the French fry that looks like Abraham Lincoln. http://us.click.yahoo.com/bBwbuA/eV0JAA/Zx0JAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> �������������������������������������������������������� This is ZESTGlobal. 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