An internet experience for the senses
Paradigm shift
We are on the brink of a paradigm shift due to expanded access to information on a scale that even alters interpretation of it. No, I am not talking about the release of some magical new product, instead I am referring to a true shift in culture.With wide spread availability of the internet and search engines, information is not limited to existing categories. It is no longer being stored in any specific physical location, like on a shelf, within a section of a building, instead it is dispersed on the net. As information has expanded, instead of being harder to find search engines allow us to turn categories inside out and access whatever we seek from the particular to general, and all related data. We can access information based on our individual needs, interests and whims, and get results instantly. While this may seem like an insubstantial change, it is actually a radical shift that has far reaching impact. One of my favorite videos explains this best.
Are we limited by Google?
Even though this is a huge change in the way we store and classify information, it goes much further than that. Our use of the internet is evolving to shift even how we perceive our environment. We now have immediate access to information, enabling us to find out the opinions of experts, celebrities and even Joe Public regarding an event, the instant it happens. Our time between an event's happening, and its perception, interpretation and retelling has drastically shortened, making Google and the internet a forming factor for perception and collective experience in our culture today.“Google is becoming an important factor in how you experience the world. Just like a person wearing glasses literally sees the world through predefined frames, humans are seeing the Internet through the limits of Google.” (quoted from seomoz.org blog Googles unspoken failures are limiting your potential)
However, Google and its record is a far cry from reality, for most anyway. Today I read a very interesting blog that presents the idea that Google has its limitations in that it lacks ability to tap into other aspects of human experience. We experience five senses, touch, taste, sight, smell and sound, and Google doesn't really tap into them.
I would like to expand on this idea by suggesting that Google, of course, is not sentient, it can not really experience anything it only dumbly repeats what we tell it. Not only does it not tap into our experience but it cannot really understand ours. It has no awareness and therefore does not understand the context of the information.
This results in Paris Hilton (the celebrity) and Paris Hilton (a place to stay in Paris France) meaning almost the same thing to Google.
Wouldn't it be great if Google could understand context?
Web 3.0 Context
Ready or not, that is exactly what is coming. While there are still no systems with awareness out there, that I know of anyway, the flip side of the coin is being developed with the result being a system that would have vast ramifications for how we perceive and interact with reality. This new development is a system that can access all the databases in the web, by understanding common tags. This will give context to media. Geographic locations, images, words, music will have context which will allow Google to do some amazing things that will tap into our senses.Here is a sample of the evidence that I found on the web -
An application that allows you to snap a picture with your cell phone to find out your location and nearby restaurants, or other shops that you are looking for, is already available. Its monocle: an augmented reality feature of yelp's iphone application.What about being able to visually search? You can take a picture of something with a device connected to the net like your cell phone and find out information about it. Sounds like science fiction doesn't it? This application is in the early stages of development and is available to android users. It's called "google goggles". http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/#text
Is your head spinning yet? Mine is. Clearly, there is something under this system allowing search engines to understand not a flat this = that sort of tag but a tag with context. It's called microformats or the semantic web. XML and RDFa data from semantic networks are used to clarify search queries and web text to improve search results. While this does not produce an 'aware' system it does allow the search engines to understand the context of the search. Paris Hilton is not the same as the Hilton in Paris.
Here is one of my favorite videos on the semantic web.
Science fiction dream or augmented reality
While the internet will never actually be able to have experiences, or so I hope, it will be able to relate as if it does. It will be able to understand what images are, and return appropriate information. It will be able to give meaningful search results drawing not only on what we typed in but also the context of our search. It is truly an exciting time to be alive as the human race evolves and progresses. Ready or not we seem to be venturing into a kind of integrated human and artificial experience. While it seems to be still a distant science fiction dream, augmented reality might be much closer than we dare to imagine.This video demonstrates a device created using existing technology.
This new technology will surely change the availability of information. Information limited to text and words will be opened wide open to include images, music and like ideas in a way never before possible. This shift could lead us to a more highly evolved state where relevant information is available at all times, allowing us to act with greater knowledge and consciousness. It could also be a world of untapped advertising opportunity where everyone and everything is a billboard ready for promotion. As this technology comes at us it is important thing to understand that it is up to us how we use these amazing tools, and what developments come from them.
