Searching The Internet

Since its beginning, the Internet has changed the life of every human on our planet. No matter how remote one may be, that the Internet exists has somehow affected all lives.

What is this thing we call the Internet? Clicking on the links I provide and spending a few moments reading will be to your advantage.

In brief, I think of the Internet as the library I loved as a kid. I was fascinated when I first saw school libraries and I was overcome with the wonder of large public libraries. It was near incomprehensible that so much knowledge could be found in a single place.

I discovered that to sift through the vast amount of data that was before me required a plan. In much of the world, that plan was to use the Dewey Decimal System to arrange all those books, manuscripts, magazines and so on. Every day the supply of literature and information grew and every day the librarians would catalog it all in proper order.

I discovered an amazing thing...if the library I stood in at that moment didn't have the resource I needed, the librarian could find it at other libraries throughout America and indeed, all throughout the world. They would acknowledge that they had what I sought and then lend it to my library who would loan it to me.

How amazing is that? All these complex entities were somehow linked together to serve a young boy.

READ: 8 tips for better Web searches

Libraries had dignity. They were silent oases of calm and control and to enter one and know how to use it to my advantage seemed that I was smarter just for that experience.

Then came this sort of rumor that we could use our little Apple and Radio Shack Tandy computers to search for data in a way that was similar to using a library. Using a clunky device known as a modem we could tap into a telephone line and with a lot of patience, we might eventually get to a "Bulletin Board" where we could see and explore things that other adventurers like ourselves had posted up there for all to read.

What happened next was unparalleled in human history. In a few short years computers advanced at a rate of doubling or tripling power every few months and prices fell at an even greater rate. Soon enough the most average of our people could own a computer that had more power than anything available for any price a couple of years prior.

The amount of knowledge that was being made available was progressing so quickly that few even dared to estimate just how many millions, then billions, of pages of data there could be out there.

It was apparent that if this were to be manageable,  there had to be a fast and reliable way to sort through all of that to find that single little piece of information that was important to you. The "search engine" was born.

Sort of like that old Dewey Decimal System in the libraries, the search engine would have to look at every small piece of what was submitted for viewing and then arrange it in an order to make it relevant for the one searching. There were, and are, hundreds of available search engines today. Each one has a slightly different take on how the search is done and how results are presented to you on your computer screen.

It hasn't been that long ago that a couple of young fellows came up with an idea that they could search the Internet faster and give you more accurate results than anyone had ever dreamed of. They named their little project Google.

Since then Google has dominated not only the way searches are accomplished but they have introduced so many products that it sometimes seems that the Internet is Google and Google is the Internet. That isn't correct but if you spend any time enjoying the wide range of entertainment, news and services available on the "net", you will see Google as a constant presence.

There are others, I use them and forget them to return to what works best for me...I'm a Google fan, through and through.

What does all that mean to you? If you're a veteran who has filed a claim for benefits with the Department of Veterans Affairs and you need to support your application with evidence, using the Google search engine may make the difference of winning or losing that award.