The Web, Google, and Cosmograms

Abstract

The internet has come to occupy a central role in the way that we produce, consume and transform knowledge. Search engines have been an important part of the process. This chapter looks at the way that the Web, the Internet, and the connected and networked world create a new, different and interesting model for knowledge. I’m going to discuss how Google works, what it does. In the early days of the web, only rudimentary search engines were available, with partial coverage. Likewise, digitized material remains hard to index; there are many choices to be made. Taking digital objects with heterogeneous taxonomies and mapping them across multiple institutions might allow material as diverse as painting, photography and archives to come together in useful ways.