The Evolution of Google Search 1997–2017
I made my very first Google search in March 1996, typing the query ‘BBC’ into a search box, clicking a single search button and being returned a extracts from 10 sources on the internet matching the query, the first of which being bbc.co.uk. I just repeated the same exercise in March 2017 following exactly the same user journey, to get exactly the same result. So the question is: is this consistency or stasis?
While technology pundits blind us with trend predictions for the future let’s just level ourselves with the fact we’re also going nowhere. Fast.
As the primary means for how we relate to the internet @Google search has barely evolved in 20 years, always made of the exact same elements (logo/ search bar/ search button / ‘feeling lucky’ button).
Should we loyally tolerate another 20 years of @Google Search mere aesthetic shuffling’s, or is it now time for something else?
Evolution is driven by mutations, we need to continually mutate our technologies in order to both adapt them to our rapidly changing environment and mitigate the behaviour of falling into ecological traps / perceptual traps. Rapid changes to our immediate environment brought about by the advent of the internet are, arguably, leading us to increasingly dismiss the reality of high-quality habitats in favour of the collective consensus for low-quality habitats perceived as providing the most attractive conditions to thrive and survive.
Ecological traps are thought to occur when the attractiveness of a habitat increases disproportionately in relation to its value for survival and reproduction. The result is preference of falsely attractive habitat and a general avoidance of high-quality but less-attractive habitats.
-Wikipedia
Progress in search technology drives profound change in our fundamental relationship with the world’s information.
If @Google (/all leading domestic search engines) can’t continue to adapt the governing tools and mental models organising how we relate to the internet then it is inevitably left to individuals to now lead this change and create something else.
else evolve non-linear search engines that help us to practise deeper critical thinking, explore divergent thinking, and navigate post-truth uncertainty.
