Search: the new application platform

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to track the uses of humans for document search and retrieval into the now increasing problem of accessing electronic information.

Design/methodology/approach

Search has evolved into a top priority for internet users and will continue to expand as the new application platform. In the last year, Google has become the superstar of finding and accessing digital information. Information fracture, the multiplying effect of information processing, continues to send shock waves across computing environments.

Findings

Computing has shifted to distributed systems delivering from the network, not the local storage device. Locating a particular digital item is difficult. Google and other search engine companies are becoming application platforms. Google provides applications on different devices at different price points, including free of charge, with a variety of technology infrastructure. Innovations will be driven by user behavior.

Research limitations/implications

Electronic information is doubling every 12 to 18 months. Search will drive the future of next‐generation applications. Publishing is already feeling the impact of this new shock wave. What is next may not be known yet, but Google already has 60 products and services out.

Originality/value

This paper shows the evolution of information in search and retrieval methods, and how search will drive next‐generation applications. Google is the primary market maker, with more patents applied for in the first six months of 2005 than all of its previous history, going back to 1998.

Citation

Arnold, S.E. (2006), "Search: the new application platform", The Electronic Library, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 121-125. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470610660314