Internet Search

"Google's index is build by searching and indexing content others have made available on the Web. "The original algorithm built its recommendations based upon the links it found already exisiting on the Web' later, the algorithm also adjusted its recommendations based upon how people responded to the results Google returned" (p. 127).

Metadata tags help to find information more easily. There are structural and semantic metadata which provides a standardized taxonomy system, but there is also a more socially constructed system or “folksonomies” which allow groups to add “User-defined labels and tags to organize and share information” (p. 136). The user-defined labels are considered by some as not as reliable.

References:

Lessig, L. (2008). Remix. New York; Penguin Press.

Morville, P. (2005). Ambient findability. Sebastopol: O'Reilly.