Our decade of Google search

© Mark Ollig


Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020, marks not only the end of another year but another decade traveling around the sun aboard the spaceship Earth.

It’s also been another decade of learning and searching for information on the internet.

It’s no surprise to know most folks Google their information.

In 1997, a year before being publicly available online, Google was only available at Stanford University.

Google’s software operates using sophisticated algorithms, enabling accurate results to our search requests.

A Google search queries the physical and virtual data servers located in the networked “clouds” of the internet for the word or expression inquired.

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee built the first web server and a browser-editor code application called WorldWideWeb (no spaces). It later became known as Nexus.

The first website was on Berners-Lee’s NeXT computer, was called info.cern.ch, and was hosted by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, now known as CERN.

The World Wide Web, as we know it, became publicly available in 1991.

Some trivia: Before using the name “Web,” Berners-Lee thought of the names “Information Mesh,” “The Information Mine,” and “Mine of Information.”

The “web” was first described in a proposal by Berners-Lee in March 1989 at CERN.

In this document, he describes the method of retrieving hyperlinked information, saying, “The storage method must not impose its own restrictions on the information. This is why a “web” of articles with links (as references) between them is much more useful than a fixed hierarchical system.”

The same year, while working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, Berners-Lee stabled The WWW Virtual Library website. It is the oldest online research catalog of the web, and is still accessible at http://www.vlib.org.

Early internet search engines include Archie in 1990, Gopher in 1991, Veronica in 1992, Jughead in 1993, Infoseek, Yahoo!, Lycos, and WebCrawler, in 1994.

Altavista and MSN (now known as Bing) began in 1995, and was used with the Microsoft Windows 95 Operating System.

AskJeeves started in 1996.

In 2008, the search engine DuckDuckGo went online. It describes itself as “the search engine that doesn’t track you.”

DuckDuckGo states they protect user privacy by not collecting and saving their search information. This search engine uses an anonymous encrypted search; they do not track user IP addresses or place cookies.

Amazingly, Google controls 90.46 percent of the worldwide search engine market.

As of Dec. 23, 2019, here are the top Google “Year in Search” US subject rankings.

News

1. Hurricane Dorian.

2. Notre Dame Cathedral.

3. Woman’s World Cup.

4. Area 51 raid.

5. Copa America.

People

1. Antonia Brown.

2. Jussie Smollett.

3. James Charles.

4. Kevin Hart.

5. R. Kelly.

Diets

1. Intermittent fasting diet.

2. Dr. Sebi diet.

3. Noom diet.

4. 1200 calories diet.

5. Golo diet.

Movies

1. “Avengers: Endgame.”

2. “Captain Marvel.”

3. “Joker.”

4. “Toy Story 4.”

5. “The Lion King.”

Musicians and bands

1. R. Kelly.

2. 21 Savage.

3. Billie Eilish.

4. Lil Nas X.

5. A$AP Rocky.

Deaths

1. Cameron Boyce.

2. Nipsey Hussle.

3. Luke Perry.

4. Jeffrey Epstein.

5. Tyler Skaggs.

What is?

1. What is Area 51?

2. What is VSCO girl?

3. What is momo?

4. What is a boomer?

5. What is quid pro quo?

TV shows

1. “Game of Thrones.”

2. “Stranger Things.”

3. “When They See Us.”

4. “Chernobyl.”

5. “The Mandalorian.”

Weddings

1. Miranda Lambert.

2. Jennifer Lawrence.

3. Justin Bieber.

4. Miley Cyrus.

5. Chiquis Rivera.

Recipes

1. Shepherd’s pie.

2. Chicken parmigiana.

3. Ham glaze.

4. Charoset.

5. Snickerdoodle cookies.

People of the red carpet

1. Billy Porter.

2. Cardi B.

3. Lady Gaga.

4. Amy Schumer husband.

5. Jenny McCarthy.

Professional sports scores

1. Washington Nationals.

2. Boston Bruins.

3. St. Louis Cardinals.

4. Dallas Cowboys.

5. St. Louis Blues.

Home style

1. Farmhouse style.

2. Colonial house style.

3. Cape Cod house style.

4. Spanish style house.

5. Art deco style.

Fashion style

1. Camp style.

2. Egirl style.

3. Eboy style.

4. Steampunk style.

5. Harajuku style.

The overall top-trending 2019 Google searches in the United States are:

1. Disney Plus.

2. Cameron Boyce.

3. Nipsey Hussle.

4. Hurricane Dorian.

5. Antonio Brown.

The overall top-trending 2019 Google searches worldwide are:

1. India vs. South Africa.

2. Cameron Boyce.

3. Copa America.

4. Bangladesh vs. India.

5. iPhone 11.

In 1998, Google averaged around 10,000 search queries each day, worldwide. This year, more than 2 trillion search queries per day have taken place.

As we celebrate the New Year, I raise a cup of good cheer to all of you, and for our successful internet search results in 2020.

(Digital Art Right-to-Use fees paid)

Remembering Jessica’s question

© Mark Ollig


“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?”

In 1897, 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun newspaper asking this question.

In 2008, a young person named Jessica sent me an email asking, “Does Santa Claus use a computer?”

My mother very much enjoyed reading the answer I provided to Jessica. So, in her memory, I am republishing (with a few modifications) the column from Dec. 22, 2008.

Alright, Jessica, just for you, I emailed my list of North Pole contacts and found one elf who agreed to investigate your question.

The name of this helpful elf is Finarfin Elendil, who, during the offseason, is a freelance journalist with the North Pole Frosty newspaper.

He informed me the jolly older man with the white beard and familiar laugh is indeed very computer savvy.

It turns out Santa Claus manages the “Claus Computer Center” (CCC) supercomputer, which is hidden under the North Pole’s primary toy-making factory.

Finarfin Elendil reports the CCC maintains his primary sleigh-command and toy-making facilities.

The CCC uses an advanced quantum computer to assist Santa in processing every child’s Christmas wish-list.

This computer incorporates a massively-integrated optical-fiber parallel light-switching bus architecture for processing the data generated by eight 500-qubit processors.

I sometimes wonder if Santa magically performed reverse-engineering using advanced extraterrestrial technology from Area 51.

Jessica, just to let you know, if you ask Santa about the CCC, he will likely not want to talk about it, or admit it exists.

The CCC is a bit like NASA’s Mission Control Space Center.

Instead of a Saturn V rocket or a space shuttle, Santa’s mode of travel at Christmas time is in his special airborne sled, code-named Sleigh-One.

Sleigh-One is more than just your average flying wooden toboggan – there is an on-board mini-computer Santa uses to obtain statistical sleigh-positioning and telemetry data.

A 3-dimensional holographic display on Sleigh-One shows Global Positioning System (GPS) data.

Another status monitor shows the MPR (Miles per Reindeer) efficiency.

Sleigh-One is powered by the magic of Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Blitzen, Dunder, and Blixem.

And because of his bright and shiny red nose, Rudolph, the “Red-Nosed Reindeer,” has been designated by Santa as “Reindeer One,” and guides his mighty sleigh around the world on Christmas.

Sleigh-One also includes a few cup-holders that he and Mrs. Claus (when traveling with Santa) use for storing the eggnog – Santa thinks of everything!

Sleigh-One receives telemetry data from the CCC to instantly map and compute the coordinates for every rooftop fireplace in the world he needs to climb down.

Finarfin Elendil said if the home has no chimney, Santa’s computer will automatically run the “back door” software program to deliver the presents.

As a child during this time of year, my favorite Christmas TV special was “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which first aired in 1964.

No doubt, many of you have watched this Christmas classic.

A major snowstorm hit the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Santa realized he would not be able to drive his reindeer sleigh through it, so he was going to cancel Christmas.

However, Santa realized Rudolph’s bright red nose would, as Santa said, “. . . cut through the murkiest storm they can dish up.”

Santa: “Ready, Rudolph?”

Rudolph: “Ready, Santa!”

Santa: “Well, let’s be on our way. OK, Rudolph. Full power!”

And now, I digress back to Jessica’s column.

Finarfin Elendil provided the following in his report.

The North Pole’s supercomputer verified the number of households in the United States at 129 million, including 79.2 million families. Santa will be very busy on Christmas Eve delivering presents.

The world’s population is nearly 8 billion.

The earth’s radius is 3,959 miles and has a surface area of 197 million square miles.

Further calculations reveal an average distance of 1.65 miles between homes.

For Sleigh-One to deliver all the Christmas presents over 24 hours throughout the entire world, Santa and the reindeer travel at an average cruising speed of 5,080,000 miles per hour.

Finarfin Elendil told the story of when Dasher asked Santa if the sleigh could go faster than the speed of light.

Santa said if he went that fast, the red light-beam from Rudolph’s nose would bend around and shine behind the sleigh instead of in front of it.

He also said going that fast might cause them to travel back in time and deliver presents before Christmas.

Well, Jessica, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and found this story fun to read; I sure enjoyed writing it.

“Christmas” comes from the Old English phrase, “Cristes maesse,” which means “Christ’s Mass.”

Dec. 25 is the day when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

(License fees to publish this digital image paid for)

‘This thing went to space’

© Mark Ollig



I recall an adventurous 8-year-old flying a kite one breezy summer day, believing, if given enough string, his kite could soar above the clouds.

Speaking of adventure, 7-year-old Max Geissbühler and his father, Luke, went above the clouds when they built a homemade spacecraft Max wanted to fly to space.

Their spacecraft’s capsule shell was constructed from lightweight Styrofoam and painted bright orange.

Inside the capsule, insulating foam cushioning protected an iPhone and a GoPro Hero high-definition video camera recorder, which would record the entire trip through a small window.

Hand warmers (the kind we use during cold Minnesota days) were packed around the electronic devices to keep them from freezing.

The capsule was attached to a helium-filled weather balloon expandable to 19 feet.

Stabilizing foam collars were fastened to the balloon to prevent it from spinning around during its ascent.

Tracking the capsule after it landed would be accomplished using the iPhone’s Global Positioning System (GPS) signal being monitored by MobileMe, an online web application used to find lost iPhones or iPads.

Signing into the Apple iCloud website, www.me.com, they will be able to locate the iPhone’s signal and have the capsule’s location displayed to them on a map.

Luke enabled the “Find My iPhone” setting on the iPhone before the launch.

A handwritten note was placed inside the capsule explaining how to contact the people who launched it.

Before the balloon and capsule officially made its liftoff, Max and his father spent eight months researching and testing everything required for a successful flight.

They also reviewed the FAA rules for weather balloons.

The day came when the balloon, its attached capsule, and electronic cargo were ready for launch.

Max, his father, and some friends completed a final checklist from their launch site located in Newburgh, NY.

Once the video recorder was turned on, the homemade space capsule lifted off from the surface of the Earth.

The balloon speedily rose into the sky, with the capsule’s video recorder briefly capturing Max watching the event unfold while standing on a large rock.

The airborne craft ascended upward toward space at a rate of 25 feet per second.

The camera’s video showed the trees, homes, and other objects on the ground quickly become smaller.

At the 2-minute mark, the balloon had risen to 3,000 feet, and continued to climb high into the sky.

After reaching 20,000 feet, the dark blue skies and cottony white clouds hovering below the capsule are seen on the recorded video.

Audio was also being recorded, and sounds of high-pitched swirling winds could be heard.

At 40 minutes into the launch, the capsule reached 60,000 feet.

Turbulent, 100 mph thermal winds were now flipping the balloon and capsule end-over-end; fortunately, the protective cushion was working, and the video recorder continued to record the progress of the flight.

For the next 30,000 feet, buffeting thermal winds tested the durability of all the capsule’s working components.

At 90,000 feet, the capsule ascended above those thermal winds, steadily continuing its journey toward the edge of space.

The onboard camera records a calm scene, showing the Earth and the blackness of space.

The capsule’s tethered “space balloon” had now stretched to 18 feet across, and was 1 foot shy of its maximum expandability before it would burst apart.

Elapsed time since the launch was 70 minutes; the recorded views from inside the center of the stratosphere were remarkable.

A breath-taking bluish curvature of the Earth, with the intense blackness of space in the background was visible in the capsule’s video recording.

After attaining an altitude of 100,000 feet above the Earth, the capsule stopped its ascent and experienced momentary weightlessness.

While stationary at nearly 19 miles above our planet, the balloon expanded beyond its maximum atmospheric pressure limit sustainability – and suddenly burst apart.

As the capsule began its descent, the camera was still recording; showing a view of the Earth, along with pieces of the shredded balloon filling the screen.

The attached parachute deployed and slowed the capsule’s rate of descent speed.

After 100 minutes of recorded video, and just 2 minutes before reaching the ground, the video camera recorder’s batteries stopped working.

However, the iPhone’s tracking signal was still operating; it was transmitting a GPS signal to a cell phone tower, which Max and his father were seeing on the me.com website.

They used the GPS coordinate signal to trace the location of the capsule on a map, showing it had landed in a wooded area 25 miles north of where they launched it.

Searching during the night-time hours, they saw the capsule’s external LED beacon light. Looking up, they found the remains of the balloon and the fully-intact capsule in a tree branch, 50 feet off the ground.

An August 2010 photo shows a smiling Max standing alongside his father, who is holding the orange space capsule, which returned from the near edge of space.

“This thing went to space,” are the words written on the photograph.

Of course, being technically in “outer space” begins at an altitude of 62 miles, or 327,360 feet.

Nonetheless, the feeling of taking a trip from the Earth into space is experienced while watching the video.

Their remarkable adventure can be seen at https://bit.ly/2LF3YN8.

This column originally appeared Oct. 25, 2010, and has been edited and updated for today’s publication by the writer.

Inside the capsule; insulating foam cushioning protection

A handwritten note by Max was placed inside the capsule

Packing the note inside the craft

Closing up the capsule and minutes from launch

Stabilizing foam collars were
 fastened to the balloon.

The balloon speedily rose into the sky, with the capsule’s
 video recorder briefly capturing Max watching the event
unfold while standing on a large rock

100,000 feet and nearly 19 miles high, the capsule stops its
 ascent and briefly becomes weightless. One second after this
snapshot photo, the balloon expanded beyond its maximum
atmospheric pressure limit sustainability – and suddenly burst apart.

A view of the Earth, along with pieces of the shredded
 balloon filling the screen.

View upon reentry; the capsule's GPS signal is now being tracked by Luke and Max

The capsule's GPS signal is mapped and its location
 is now known to Luke and Max.
 The capsule landed roughly 25 miles from
where it was launched. 

Luke holds the Space Capsule and deflated balloon as Max smiles for the camera.
Mission Accomplished! 

‘The Mother of All Demos’

© Mark Ollig


Dec. 9 marks the 51st anniversary of a computing demonstration that was truly ahead of its time.

Douglas Engelbart dreamed of a computerized, interactive workstation while serving in the US Navy as a radar operator, shortly after World War II had ended.

In the Navy, he worked with radar images on a CRT (cathode ray tube) display screen.

Engelbart envisioned having computer data processing power accessibility available at an individual’s work station, and viewable using a CRT monitor.

The large vacuum-tube that operated computers during the 1940s had names such as Colossus, ENIAC, and Z4.

Engelbart believed individual computing work stations could be networked, thus allowing information to be quickly shared and collaborated on with others.

In 1957, Engelbart was employed at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as a researcher.

From 1959 to 1960, with financial assistance from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, he worked on his project for an individual computing workstation.

“The objective of this project is to provide organization and stimulation in the search for new and better ways to obtain digital manipulation of information,” Engelbart wrote Oct. 30, 1959.

By 1962, Engelbart completed work on a computer system called the NLS (oN-Line System) using funds provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Dec. 9, 1968, the results of his work were publically presented during The Fall Joint Computer Conference at Brooks Hall in San Francisco, CA.

Using an NLS with a connected interactive multi-console display system (computing workstation), Engelbart gave a demonstration he called, “A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect.”

Engelbart presented a fascinating working demonstration into the future of human-computer interaction and networking before an audience of engineers, computer scientists, and others.

Engelbart was seated on stage in front of a terminal console screen and keyboard attached to a 22-foot video projector.

The terminal console was remotely linked via dedicated telephone lines to a mainframe computer performing the actual program processing. This computer was located 30 miles away, inside the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA.

Approximately 1,000 people in attendance watched the large screen above the stage – seeing what was being displayed on the terminal console monitor screen as Engelbart typed on the keyboard.

Many in the audience became curious about the “pointing device” Engelbart used to move the cursor (moveable indicator) dot on the monitor screen to highlight data being displayed.

Engelbart called the device a “mouse.”

Yes, he invented the point-and-click device we use today, and still call a mouse.

Engelbart worked on the first mouse prototype five years before the 1968 demo.

Why call it a “mouse?” It was said, someone suggested this name in 1963, because the cord connected to it looked like a tail, and the wooden, hand-held device was small, so they affectionately called it a mouse.

Unfortunately for Engelbart, the patent for his mouse creation was owned by the company where he developed it: Stanford Research Institute.

He never received any monetary royalties for this invention, but the computing world acknowledges him with inventing it.

Engelbart received many prestigious awards over his lifetime for his work in computer technology, and of course, for inventing the computing mouse.

In one interview, Engelbart thought they would have come up with a more official-sounding description for the mouse; but acknowledged the device would always be known as a “mouse.”

While watching a video of the 1968, 90-minute Engelbart demonstration, one of the things which impressed me – besides the technology – was the professionalism Engelbart exuded throughout the entire presentation.

Fascination showed on the faces of those in attendance, while Engelbart explained and demonstrated the way hypertext links between files worked, and how to use statement coding to manage and organize file folder directories, and sub-files.

During the presentation, Engelbart quickly typed statement code software programs on-the-fly, using the built-in keyboard inside the computer console.

He demonstrated how one could manipulate and organize the information contained inside text files.

Using “computer screen windowing,” Engelbart showed how one could simultaneously view separate information categories by displaying them inside overlaid “windows” using a single display monitor.

User-to-user video conferencing over the computing console’s monitor screen was demonstrated by Engelbart.

The real-time video conference was established by Engelbart with his coworkers located in Menlo Park. It was eerily similar to today’s video conferencing programs, such as Facetime or Skype.

Remember, folks – this technology was being demonstrated before a live audience in 1968.

People watched his presentation with amazement and gave Engelbart resounding applause at its conclusion.

Many of the researchers who worked with Engelbart from SRI went on to work at the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center).

In 1973, they built the Xerox Alto computer, which I wrote about in my April 13 column of last year.

The Alto used a user-friendly GUI (graphical user interface), which took advantage of Engelbart’s mouse device for navigating through software programs.

Engelbart believed the use of computers would make the world a better place – and he was right.

Unfortunately, operating his 1968 NLS workstation computer system was never fully understood by the general public.

It was said, the statement coding used for creating and managing the computer program’s workstation files was too complicated for the average person to grasp.

In his later years, Engelbart spoke before students at universities, gave keynote speeches, and was interviewed countless times.

Douglas C. Engelbart passed away July 2, 2013, at the age of 88.

The Dec. 9, 1968 video presentation of The Mother of All Demos is stored within the Internet Archive and can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/1968demo.

Posted on the large screen above the stage at the start of Douglas Engelbart's
 "Mother of All Demos" presentation on Dec. 9, 1968 during
The Fall Joint Computer Conference at Brooks Hall in San Francisco, CA.

The terminal console Douglas Engelbart used for the 1968 public demonstration.
The text is shown as it appeared on the large screen above the stage.

The 'mouse' Douglas Engelbart invented and used during the
1968 public demonstration.
The left blue circle shows the screen monitor's movable cursor dot.
 The right blue circle shows one of the axis wheels on the mouse
controlling the movement of the cursor.

The terminal console Douglas Engelbart used for the 1968 public demonstration.