2001 doesn’t seem so long ago does it?  Well, not to me, but it does when you take a little trip back in time with Google.  To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the mother of all search engines, Google has re released the oldest index that it still has; the January 2001 version.      

It’s not often we get this kind of opportunity to roll back the years.  Looking for Facebook gives you just 1,810 results.  Not too surprising as it had only just been created and was available exclusively to a handful of Ivy League colleges.  Most of the links are now dead but you can get an idea of what Facebook looked like in the early days through the links to the Internet archive.  If you want an idea of how it looked at the time click here for the Harvard Currier House version.  Trust me, you’ll feel a lot happier about the latest redesign.    

Try looking for the iPod and you will only find 1,300 sites and none of them referring to the Apple music playing device because in January 2001 no one has an iPod.  There is a revolutionary new immersive entertainment device called the VRex iPod but you have to climb inside it to be entertained.  Searching for Flickr gives just 34 results and these are all spelling mistakes.  Searching for Youtube gives a great big fat zero.   Imagine a world without Youtube.     

Having had my fill of early new media, I wondered about the most popular searches of 2008 and how they might they compare.  How did ‘Britney Spears’ fare compared with the 87 million results we get now.  Well there were nearly a million results even in 2001 but what innocent times; ”Britney Spears is like many 17 year old girls. She loves shopping at the mall, romance novels, and long strolls along the beach.”  Want to really experience how things were back in the day?  One click will do it.

Social media is constantly changing. Well that’s what we all thought with the migration of MySpace to Facebook but what if the online tools we’re using today could actually develop at the same pace as our attention span?

Maybe it’s me, but it feels like Flickr, Digg and Twitter have been around for so long, I can’t remember life before them!

On the anniversary of the launch of Facebook Platform, the company has announced on its blog a whole host of improvements coming soon. Many of you will have noticed the change in profile layout, something that I think is a massive improvement allowing me to find the most recent information quickly. More importantly, I’m no longer being distracted by all those apps I added a year a go.

The most interesting part of the post for me is the upcoming Facebook Connect:

“Facebook Connect is a new way to use applications, on the open web and not just on Facebook. Soon, you’ll be able to use your Facebook account to login and connect on websites throughout the web. Imagine never filling out another profile at a new site, or having to find your friends all over again. Facebook Connect will help make this a reality and allow you to use Facebook to share information from all over the web with your friends.”

So that’s my personal information following me around wherever I go on the web. Is it ok for me to be intrigued and scared at the same time?

I’ll be fascinated to see which sites sign up for this and what benefits there are for web developers in the short term. For advertising I can see huge benefits in terms of personalisation.

Flash forward to a point when facial recognition becomes common place in CCTV cameras and that personal data is not only following me around the web but down the street.

Now exactly when should I start to regret putting all that personal information about myself on Facebook? Perhaps when I have billboards shouting out at me?

Once it’s up there, it’s not just going to disappear, even if you ‘delete’ your profile. We’ve put into action a chain of events where information is the currency of the technology age. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Stalkr - (pronounced stalker) a person that you don’t know who tries to Facebook you or become your friend on MySpace or indeed on any social network.   The term also apples to someone you may know a bit who decides to relentlessly pursue a more active online discourse than you would like.  Would also apply to someone you are not following who frequently talks @ you on Twitter.  Essentially a  stalker in the 2.0 style of Flickr, Tumblr etc.