Most Significant Flattener

Thomas Friedman outlined 10 flatteners that he feels truly shaped our society into what it is today. Out of those 10 points, he discussed the impact of search engines and how they evolved and developed into what we use today. The primary example is how google changed how we think, and how we use the Internet. Prior to search engines like Google, MSN, yahoo, and Altevista, we were expected to simply know how to find websites. It caused there to be a large division between those websites that could afford expensive advertising and aggressive marketing, and those that were small start-ups. Search engines created a more transparent visualization of the Internet by allowing websites equal opportunity for traffic, and while this seems only beneficial to the website developers, the entire world benefited. Users can now simply ask a question to google or yahoo, and have responses from Chinese users, Russian users, etc. Programs like Google Translator allow for entire web pages to be converted into a language understood by all, which further flattens the world. Friedman also outlines how google searches increased from 150 million searches per day to one billion, this exponential increase illustrates the effectiveness of search engines as well as their necessity in the modern world. Business are now considered "behind" if they aren't listed on the google search page and if a google search doesn't yield a private web page. But the effects of google aren't necessarily all beneficial. Google now knows more about us than ever before, and who is to say that information won't be shared with anyone? Every single search is recorded, regardless of its embarrassing nature. There have been incidents where search histories have been made public, and individuals have been identified for searching ridiculous and embarrassing things. So while the world has definitely been flattened by the emergence of search engines, their effects are not entirely benevolent.