According to a 2001 study, there were approximately 550 billions documents on the Web. A 2002 survey of 2,024 million Web pages determined that by far the most Web content was in English: 56.4% followed by German: 7.7%, French: 5.6% and Japanese: 4.9%. As of June 2008, the Web contained at least 63 billion pages. As of July 2008, software engineers announced that Google Search had discovered one trillion unique URLs.
With all the advancement in the last several years, I can't imagine getting through my day without using the internet in some way.
AT HOME
I remember in school using my grandmother's old manual (not even electric) typewriter. In order to make the letter come out on the paper I'd have to practically punch the keys. By the time I was finished typing a few pages, I was exhausted. When the ink would fade, I'd have to replace it and get in all over my hands. The red and black spool of ribbon leaving its trace all over my fingers and desk! Now I can barely touch the keys. If I hold it for a second longer than I should, I get 'ttttttttttttttttt'. If I made a mistake, I'd have to scroll up (manually of course) with the knobs on either side and use Wite Out, wait, I don't even remember using that, I remember using a circular eraser with a brush at the other end to get rid of the erasure marks. Now I can delete, cut, paste, insert. Anything I want with a few keystrokes. What a difference!
For reports I would head to our family room and hit our entire volume of encyclopedias (my choice, A - Z) and look up the topic. Each volume was in a thick hardcover book that used to weigh a ton. I remember dreading to have to use them. The set we had was purchased years before I was born and not only was certain information now inaccurate, but the pages smelled musty. Now I just Google a topic and *bam*! Not only do I have my choice of information, but I also have different choices to look up and anything associated with my topic. What a difference!
AT THE WORKPLACE
And fuggeddaboudit. It's completely revolutionized the workplace. I can't imagine having to track down places, locations, phone numbers, etc. without first referring to the Web. It takes a fraction of the time it would take to get information on a company the old way. Again, Google to the rescue. My senior year in high school I used to work at 5 WTC for a company: First Boston. I was in the Corporate Control Dept. Basically I handled bank reconciliations, travel, send letters and newsletters to other companies, etc. If I had to do research on someone, calling their company and trying to get information, was like pulling teeth! Now things are so much easier and simple. Now it takes a fraction of the time to do any of those things.
From your computer, you can: send FedEx packages, order lunch, process expenses, book travel, shop, pay for and have delivered almost anything without leaving your seat. What a difference!
Technology is a wonderful thing. And now with BlackBerrys and other PDA devices, being able to not only read your email from a handheld, but to now open and edit Microsoft documents, it's an amazing time to be in. I look forward to the future and the gadgets that will be created.
No comments:
Post a Comment