Download: Search and People Power

Download: Search

It truly is amazing to see how search engines have come from just plain text pages all the way to the pages that we know today. Heck, Google basically offers up suggestions on what pages to search while you are typing in your search, letter by letter. I have been around the Internet ever since I was in 6th grade and back then, the biggest name in search among my friends and my parents was the search engine Alta Vista. As I grew up, I used search less and less until I got into college and even then I would use whatever search engine the MSN home page used. Today, its Bing that I use almost exclusively. But going back to the days when there were many search engines out there, it is amazing that they would turn a company like Google down. Of course, no one truly knew which search company would still be alive today. But back then, just like our buddy John said, a million dollars was nothing in Silicon Valley.


Download: People Power

I believe what YouTube co-founder and CEO, Chad Hurley said was absolutely correct. "The Internet is about connecting individuals." That is exactly what today's social media is all about. That is why Mark Zuckerberg began Facebook. It is the same premise behind MySpace. I think that the greatest thing about YouTube is the fact that it kind of took the power out of the hands of TV execs and gave people the power to put content out there for other peers to watch. Even today, I watch some people who produce their own "College Gameday" type shows on YouTube. The thing about it is that even though these guys are basic amateurs and do not get paid for their service, they are extremely knowledgeable and really brilliant. I consider them the perfect alternative to suffering through Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit on ESPN every Saturday morning.

I really like the interview in this video with Mark Zuckerberg. I totally agree with him when he says that the opinions of your friends and peers mean a lot to you. The reason it is true is because when you hear the opinions of those in the media such as news anchors, reporters, journalists, etc. you are unsure what they are saying is true because there is way too much lying going on in today's journalism world. Facebook is definitely the Google of today. People who at first were not too sure about Facebook hear from their friends and peers about how nice it is to connect with family and friends and they change their tune. They join Facebook and after a while, they get hooked and run to their friends. This is a more common occurrence nowadays with people over 40 because they are among the "non-tech savvy" as I like to call them.

It is truly amazing at how people have changed the Internet in today's world. It seems like only a year or two ago when MySpace and Facebook were just mere thoughts and Yahoo and Google were in the beginning stages of their search war.