About 40,000 times per second -
that's how often you, me,
and the rest of the world combined uses this little search bar.
I use Google for researching the meaning of words
that are really hard to pronounce.
I would use Google to learn about forces on Earth,
and I would also learn what animals have brains.
I usually Google, like, recipes 'cause I like to cook,
and funny videos of people being silly.
Like, people, like, that have a cat, and then they put
their cat in, like, a T-shirt.
(MELODIC ELECTRONIC TUNE PLAYS)
OK, our searches aren't always that serious,
but more than 90% of Australians online
have come to depend on Google to help us to find out about,
well, pretty much everything.
So, what would happen if we couldn't use this anymore?
Well, that's a question a lot of Australians
have been asking lately...
..probably on Google.
You see, Google's threatening to stop Aussies from Googling.
It's all because of a new set of rules
the Australian government wants to bring in,
which would make Google and Facebook pay to show people news.
It's something that news organisations have called for.
You see, a lot of them are struggling to make money
and they say it's not fair that big tech companies
get to display their work for free and make a profit in the process.
But these two disagree,
and say they're actually helping the news organisations
by pointing people to their websites.
Google also says the new laws could actually mess with how Search works.
The news media bargaining code
would break how Google Search works in Australia.
Now, I know that sounds pretty full-on, but it's true.
But, wait, how DOES Search work anyway?
There are hundreds of billions of web pages out there, right?
Well, a search engine takes all of that information and sorts it,
a bit like a library does, except this library is bigger
than all of the world's libraries put together.
It then uses algorithms,
which are like rules the computer can be programed to follow
to help it solve problems,
to sort through that library to find the most relevant,
useful results for what you're looking for.
Of course, it all happens in a fraction of a second,
but like I said earlier,
Google isn't the only one that can do this.
In fact, back in the 1990s,
when the internet really became a thing,
people didn't Google things.
They searched using all sorts of search engines,
like Yahoo, AltaVista,
or this weird thing called Ask Jeeves.
Anyway, then Google came along with an algorithm
that ranked results by popularity, and took over the world.
Google is obviously free and it benefits a lot of businesses,
but it also makes a LOT of money, mainly through ads
that are targeted at you and what you search for.
So, back to those laws.
Google reckons, if news organisations start charging to display results,
other companies could follow and we could end up with a search engine
that displays the wealthiest web pages,
not the best one.
As a compromise, Google's offered to pay news companies
to feature stories on a special news platform,
but some of them say that's not enough.
Meanwhile, the government says it's committed to the new laws
and has been talking to Google about working things out.
What they recognise, um,
is there is a need to pay for content.
Um, and I think they also recognise
that maybe some of the threats have been misplaced.
And, hey, if our Googling days ever did come to an end,
there are other options out there,
or it might even be time
for a new search engine to step in.
Hmm. 'Ask Amelia' has a good ring to it.