The thread sraettd out as an ugly Troll, and just got uglier. Unfortunately, I can see some truth in the uglier predictions. As a follow-on to the inventions in the current generation, the precursor to the search engine being one of the biggest inventions recently is the fact that information storage and retrieval has gotten incredibly cheap. It is now possible to store (large data bases), analyze relationships (Google-esque), retrieve (search engines), and display (mobile phones) so much information that it is mind boggling to earlier generations. A large workforce in previous generations were employed as the gate keepers of knowledge (publishers, attorneys, doctors, REALTORS), and with information now being more free we are effectively stripping away multiple intermediate layers in every industry that once was a middle-man or gatekeeper to some knowledge asset. The interesting thing will be to see how the common person uses this easily accessible information. The commoner who will really use this information is the extremely poor, although educated person in a different country who can now take a job that was once guarded by proximity or social connections. To bring it back to real estate, I certainly can't see realtors continuing to take a huge cut of a sale when a large portion of their value is that they hold the keys to a closed database. Someday that will open up, and then a flood of cheap, enthusiastic labor will flood the real estate market, just like the current IT and engineering markets. Rate this comment: 0 0

by George 01:12:20 AM 2013.03.14

“Lucky Gracie is not the interviewer, because her standing on tippy toes whilst AOL is going all crouching tiger to be on her level, would make for a v v awkward sha.;”tWhotevers mate. You’re just jealous because we know he <3 things that come in small packages since he gets along so well with his v short friend Scott. Failing that, we can always get a box for me to stand on.

by Buff 02:03:58 AM 2016.07.20