Blog Post 8

Shapiro and Varian make some valid and still relevant points when it comes to information technology and it's relationship with the producer and consumer of information.  They talk about how hardware and software are completely useful without each other.  The two also reference the relationship between advertisers and consumers in the cyber world.  I find it to be a good thing that advertisers are able to connect with their customers better than ever through information about their own navigation.  Up until now, I've seen it as a breach of privacy however since it is now widely known that almost nothing is private on the internet, why should your browsing history?  We have discussed in that past that the younger generation is becoming more concerned with social privacy than institutional privacy.  I think this trend will continue and that will allow advertisers to collect more and more information on users.  I would much rather see an ad for a dress I might like than one for tire rims and data mining can make that happen.
It is quite obvious however that this article is outdated.  At one point the authors write, "The fact is the Web isn't all that impressive as an information resource".  I personally do not agree with this.  The fundamental aspect of the internet as an information resource is the search engine.  The search engine has evolved from the classic AskJeeves to Google [insert noun].  Google as a search engine has pushed farther in terms of information accessibility than any other.  Bing by Microsoft is trying to catch more ground with its constant campaigns against Google however Bing still does not have the social backing that Google has.    The amount of scholarly information on the web has increased vastly since educational institutions started using the internet as part of its curriculum. Search engines in 2005 may have been frustrating but today, they are used more than any other type of Web site.