Search Engines & the Human Brain

Search engines are transforming our culture because they harness the power of relationships, which is all (Web) links really are. There are about 100 billion Web pages, and each page holds, on average, 10 links. That’s a trillion electrified connections coursing through the Web. This tangle of relationships is precisely what gives the Web its immense force. (Data from Kevin Kelly's New York Times article, Scan This Book!)

One trillion links on the Web! That’s similar to the number of synapses in the brain. In fact, as more knowledge finds its way onto the Web, it begins to resemble the human brain more and more. Think of this. As the number of Web pages increases, will the Web become the repository of all human knowledge; a “universal library?” If so, it would be a monumental human achievement.

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