The World At Your Fingertips...

Computer Search Engines

by Sam DiBernardo

The Biblical saying and encouragement “Seek and Ye Shall Find” has never been truer than it is today, especially when it comes to finding whatever information you are looking for on the Internet. How and when the Internet began and was first developed can be found—yes—on the internet in pages chock full of information like Wikipedia but the important thing is how did I find this information that you yourself can look up in the first place. Well I started with a “Search Engine” and the one I used for this search was “Google” but there are others like Yahoo and Microsoft and “Ask” (formerly Ask Jeeves).

When I started with personal computers and it seems like it was at the dawn of civilization my first “PC” was a Tandy TL-2. I toyed with K-Pro (which I adored) and Texas Instruments TI-99 and big sized IBM computers. But I think that the TL-2 was one my first serious entries into home computing along with the Commodor 64 which billed itself as “The Worlds First Personal Computer” introduced at the Consumer’s Electronics show in Chicago, 1977, before Apple and Radio Shack’s Tandy Computers introduced theirs. I used to see the Commodor in the window showcases of the camera stores on 40th street in NYC and was tempted to buy one but, the TL-2 (which I could play with in a Radio Shack Store) had everything I wanted at a price I could afford—still a great formula for buying computers today!

My TL-2 had a modem and I could even in those early days join in on “group chats” and had my first experience with the primitive web. Got my introduction to “Hyper Text” with my hook-up. Text would be highlighted in different colors— left click any of them and the message behind them was displayed but it was slower than my grandmother climbing stairs in a Hi-Rise and just as iffy!

My Tandy had a “language” all it’s own and so did the other machines. This was before IBM and Bill Gates developed DOS (Disk Operating Systems). IBM failed to recognize the potential of DOS and virtually gave it to Mr. Gates for free—Bill went on to start Microsoft and learned to do windows; so, how big and rich are they today?

My first computer teaching job was in an Elementary School in Canarsie, Brooklyn and we had the Texas Instrument puters that had to use a tv as the screen with a special UHF switch and the programming language was “Logo” and to begin you typed in “Tell Turtle” to work a simple program or two. I recall it had the one and only computer game called “Pong!” The kids loved it— being a big kid myself, so did I! Incidentally, you couldn’t make a diagonal line or anything circular; everything looked like it was made with Leggo blocks.

I like to tell a cute story about my first elementary classroom with 12 TI computers. One afternoon I stayed late and programmed each and every computer. The next day when my first, my brightest and favorite class came rushing into my room I kicked them out and very sternly had them line up in the hall. Oh, Oh they thought Mr. D is cross with us and we better watch out and listen to him. I had them walk into the room 2 by 2 and directed them to their assigned desks with the instructions “touch nothing until I tell you”—they were as quiet as a mouse (which we didn’t have yet). Then I told them to raise their index finger and hold it up and when I say Go, hit the enter key. GO! And, every screen lit up at the same time with a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern with the message Happy Halloween! The kids went wild and rushed up and surrounded me with the happiest laughter and smiles on earth! What Joy! Pure Joy! I’ll wager that none of those kids ever forgot that day! That still fills me with so much pride I could burst!

Some years later when I taught computers in High School a kid ran up to me all excited and said Hey Mr. D look what I found! We had a high speed internet connection by then and he clicked on to a page called “Ask Jeeves.” He said go ahead and ask any question and there it was a real full-blown search engine and it was pretty darn good with information arranged in categories—very useful to kids doing class writing and research projects. Dangerously, plagiarism reared its ugly head and it is alive and well today. I have always encouraged students to use their own words and there are web sites that an instructor can check to see if a term paper or thesis has been plagiarized.

Trying to explain what these search engines have brought into our lives is absolutely impossible. The amount of information they can tap into and deliver to you is staggering; and the speed at which your query can be answered is as fast as the speed of light any fiber network can deliver. They are powered by banks and banks of supercomputers working at full tilt. Google got the “leg up” on this technology and the others have been playing catch-up ever since. Alas, I knew of Google’s potential early on and my only regret is that I didn’t buy Google Stock at the IPO (Initial Public Offering).

Simply, one of the ways that Google gathers income is by the arrangement of the information and paid for links and the others are by advertising and more... Their income, as reflected by their stock prices, is in the billions—I knew that Google was a winner from the first time (and it was very early on) that I searched for information. That first search turned into hours and hours of going from link to link—I became “Linky” and still am—for me there is no such thing is a simple search. Loving it!

Finally, If I have made any reference or made any errors in this story or if you want to learn more just go to Google and have some fun! I offer this advice because I guess I’m still a Teacher at heart!!!

Sam DiBernardo is a Candidate for NY City Council Dist. 32 Queens