Ancient man survived by hunting and gathering.  Men would hunt for meat, and women gathered all manner of fruits and vegetables, providing sustenance.  Although still in use today by many tribes throughout the world, hunting and gathering has taken on a different meaning in the light of the information age.  Other revolutionary eras in human history have used other methods, such as trial and error that led to the inventions that fueled the industrial revolution.  In time, science has become more like the internet and less like the quintessential chemistry lab of the late nineteenth century, filled with boiling concoctions that could explode at any moment.  Science has advanced to a stage of research and beyond, a path now being followed by the internet.  Over the next few days, we’ll look at the evolution of the information age and where the internet is headed.

We stand on the proverbial cusp of the next jump in the way that we use the internet.  In the past we’ve researched it.  Scoured it for usage data to better understand how it responds to commands, which commands are frequently given and and who is issuing the orders, otherwise known as internet searches.  Archaeological science, for example, cannot be defined simply by the existence of ancient civilizations, but rather requires the study and research of ancient civilizations in order to be a science.  It is the knowledge gained by archaeologists that has enriched our understanding of present-day civilization.  Similarly, the internet cannot be defined simply as a web of interconnected pages of information, but includes also the searches performed on that information, as it is those searches that provide meaning to the pages themselves.

In the past, we’ve been hungry for data.  We’ve plugged our gathered data into complex algorithms that assign value to information.  A random shard of a vase found within an ancient village earns far more value when the remainder of the vase is found, ordered and discovered to bear an image that sheds light on the way in which the vase was used.  That usage information is then extrapolated to tell an archaeologist something about the person who made it, who used it, or for whom it was used.

We’ve reached a point in the evolution of the internet where we have created automated ways to measure and calculate the worth of information in multiple facets and tomorrow we’ll explore our present situation, that is, how that data is being looked at and currently used to improve our internet experience.