The Social Era of the Web Starts Now

Computers and the internet have evolved as social tools, and software developers compete to win an increasing number of supporters. “We are about to witness the next great conflict of the information age, a rich and complicated match on the scale of mainframes vs. micros, RISC vs. CISC, Windows vs. Unix,” write John Rennie and Glenn Zorpette for Spectrum of IEEE. “Like those battles, Google-Facebook will shape the industry’s landscape for years to come.” Facebook is like a club while Google is more like a library. Despite cursory differences, both share a goal: developing methods for users to register immediate opinions, while collecting all manner of data, analyzed by algorithms, to deliver targeted ads and predict behavior. Rennie and Zorpette point to challenges: building data centers that “keep up with epic demands for processing power, data storage” and fending off upstarts that develop more revolutionary models, including innovative information delivery that can also preserve privacy. – YaleGlobal