The following is a blog post that was part of my coursework for a paper I did at uni, called 'Technoculture and New Media.' It was definitely one of the most interesting papers I did for my degree, and I thought I'd repost them here in my own blog. You can take a look at the class blog here. It's fascinating to take a look at how much has changed in the short time since I've taken that paper in 2009.
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There is a huge drive at the moment towards making internet searching capable of reflecting real time information. This ability to sort results by real time has given Twitter a huge advantage over other search engines, even to the point where people look to them for breaking news updates. Their list of the top 10 trending topics, updated in real time, gives an insight into what has people talking. These topics can range from world news, to people posting their opinion on the latest blockbuster, or even a video on YouTube that’s gone viral. Facebook recently followed suit, allowing users to opt-in to a searchable public timeline of their status updates.
A few months ago, Google, the world’s most popular search engine, allowed users to filter search terms according to date. Being able to differentiate results that were posted recently and those from a year ago has the potential to create a new user experience where time sensitive terms will return the appropriate results posted recently. At the moment, results are merely sorted by relevance, which can be frustrating if you’re looking for information on a developing story.
This focus on gaining information in real time is an example in the way that technology is shifting the way in which we process information. Rather than wait for a traditional news media such as newspapers and news agencies, we have become cyborgs, extending our senses so that we may both broadcast and receive information ourselves. However, the paradox is, at the same time, this flood of information means that we are limited in the information we can physically process, and many people will select information based on what others are talking about, rather than sorting through everything.
Originally published here.
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