I just started playing with Microsoft’s latest answer to Google Search, Bing (www.bing.com). Microsoft has quietly decided to once again stand up to Google and meet it on its own turf. Bing is fast, has some very cool features and is surely raising the bar for search technology. It got me thinking about the impact on my life of Internet Search.

Thinking of all the tools that the computer revolution has delivered it is difficult to decide which ones have the biggest impact on our lives. The leading candidates must surely be the PC, SmartPhone, email, and yes, Internet Search. What may be a bit easier to identify and, ultimately more useful as one gazes ahead trying to judge where technology is taking us, is to determine which technologies are the most indispensible.

While we think that the personal computer has been at the heart of all technological advancement, and your PC is the most crucial piece in your technology tool belt, I think we need to look at how we use technology rather than what we use to really understand its impact.

A few quick questions:

What did we do for entertainment before the computer?

We watched TV, we visited, we played sports.

What did we do before email?

We phoned our friends, some of us wrote letters, but mainly, we phoned.

How did we do our work before computers?

We used filing cabinets, and kept manual records, we typed on typewriters and calculated on calculators, wrote letters and we phoned each other.

How did we find out things before Google?

Um, I don't know.

I can remember years ago thinking that I might want to become a stockbroker, and I can remember that I discovered that I would need to take the Canadian Securities Course to meet that goal, but I can't for the life of me remember where I found that info!

When I think about my world I believe I can live without any one piece of hardware. In order of how much I use different tools on my PC, email is first, and I have to say web searching is probably the second most common activity.

If I didn't have my PC my SmartPhone (a BlackBerry Bold at this time) would fill in all the gaps. On my Smartphone, in order of importance comes Phone, SMS messaging, email and finally web searching. I installed the Google Mobile Apps on my phone and now a regular feature of any conversation is a quick check on Google for some information about the topic du jour!

I believe I could do without one of email, voice or SMS as long as the other 2 were in place. But I don’t think I can do without web searching anymore!

I have reached a point of demanding an instant response to any question I may have, from where is the nearest hardware store to what is the weather like in Toronto? Web search is the only way to accomplish this, and it is every bit as effective on my phone as it is on my computer. So Microsoft stepping up to the plate and deciding to really compete in search using Bing is probably going to be a much bigger deal long-term for the future of the software giant than its rather quiet launch would indicate.