Navigating the Internet used to mean painstakingly typing the exact address you wanted into your computer. The web browser and the search engine simplified that, giving us the Internet we take for granted today.
Now, across Silicon Valley, companies from tiny start-ups to titans like Google and Facebook are trying to bring the same simplicity to smartphones by teaching apps to talk to one another.
As people spend more time using apps, their Internet has taken a step backward, becoming more isolated - more like the web before search engines.
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Heaven forfend! The web *before* search engines?! OMG by BFF mite hv 2 lrn Gopher!
But, seriously, I wonder /which/ apps these "titans" have in mind as most needing to "talk" to one another: if a calendar entry mentions the address of a restaurant in the "wrong" part of town, will I show up on my boss' list of employees who were in a certain area at the time of a union meeting?
Bill Horne Moderator