As of now, now being this minute, today, even this month or year, we’ve collected years worth of usage data and analyzed that data.  Who searches for what?  Where are they from?  When, during the day, night, year are they searching?  Why are they searching (research, purchasing)?  How are they searching?  Once they’ve completed their search, how do they use that information to get what they want or need?

The questions are endless, just like the data gathered on the answers.  We’ve even begun to understand the scope to which we can use this data and analysis.  We have graphing programs that help turn data into visually attractive and easy-to-understand images.  Google has recently brought us Insights for Search, making gathering and analyzing data quick and efficient.  But what comes next?

The internet isn’t just about spreading information anymore.  It now involves a thorough psychology that results in success for businesses, a wider reach for the media and an instant access to highly detailed information (who can imagine getting through a summer without the Internet Movie Database, or IMDB?).  Everyone is available all of the time.  Years ago, checking email once a week seemed sufficient enough, and everyone had just one email address; chances were that email address was with AOL.  Now our phones connect constantly to the internet and beep every time one of our seven email accounts receives a new message that passes SPAM filters.

We stand now on the cusp of the next necessary and logical step in the evolution of how the internet is used and understood.  More data, functions and interaction are consistantly in high demand but we have not yet begun to use the internet to its fullest potential.  Until now we’ve not been ready to.

Imagine scientists trying to clone a sheep before they understood how D.N.A. works and is structured.  The very idea is beyond ludicrous, to the point of being impossible.  Sixty years ago, personal robots were only the dreams of science fiction authors and two hundred years ago no one would have thought to travel faster than the speed of a horse.

Ten years ago we were not ready to transform the internet, to master it, because we were still learning about it.  Whether or not the internet was invented by Al Gore, it didn’t spring into existence in the same form it holds today; it has evolved.  And if science has taught us anything, it’s that evolution is constant.  Change is always inevitable, and we have reached the point where, with all of our data and analysis, we are ready to find out where the internet, now so much more than the “world wide web,” can take us…or more importantly, where we can take the internet.