Technology

According to Wikipedia, the word taxonomy is used to describe the science of classification. Originally it was only used to classify organisms however as time progressed, the use of taxonomy became increasingly influential, and taxonomic schemes may be used to classify all types of objects. It is due to the tree structure of various types of classification of information, that the world around us now can be searched within minutes so that the information that we need to look for is available even at the push of a button. Taxonomic schemas as of late are at the very heart of todays knowledge management system.

Nowadays there are any number of applications that can help people create taxonomies and place objects of information within the categories as and how they please. However the amount of automation and artificial intelligence, as well as knowledge representation used can greatly vary amongst the options. Certain programs only allow users to add a URL to a specific sort of category whereas other options enable humans to create actual rules according to which the system works. The overall niche of this as well as the cloud computing revolution now are able to accept a training set within a taxonomy and will place documents in categories based on the the similarities that the information may have. As time has progressed, certain applications have now also enabled users to automate the entire process whereby users can now group pages into the type of topics which are based on the programmable evaluation of contents.

The one thing to remember however is at the end of the day they are still applications that use artificial intelligence and thus the human mind, if used effectively can beat them at their own game.

According to Paola Di Maio in 2001, and even if we exclude what this person said and think more along the terms of common sense and the evolution of information, with every day, the amount of information is increasing exponentially. Whether it is through the collaboration of humans on the internet, or even through research, the world is coming closer and more knowledgeable by the day. It is through this information explosion, that the world is now facing a crisis, and the top companies of the world, are still waiting and figuring out ways to organize all sorts of information around us. That according to Di Maio, is the next step in the evolution, as well as the challenge of the future. Online taxonomies were according to him the future, or the next step, rather leap in information science.

Now that the evolution of taxonomy and the information age has been discussed in great detail, the next step in this hierarchy of ideas is that of a proper solution. The only way for information to be organized on a day to day basis, as well as, to bring some sanity to the sense of chaos that prevails in our minds due to the information explosion, was to open it up to interpretation, as well as share it with everyone for their mutual benefit. Enter the World Wide Web and the internet revolution. As people started joining the revolution, people like the founders of Alta Vista and Yahoo realized that it was time to organize everything. This lead to the evolution of search as we know it. The diagram on the next page explains the evolution and the various stages that were passed to reach the stage which now prevails. A stage at which most people think it cannot get easier to search for information, yet the top gurus of search just met last week to discuss and debate the future of this business and what the next step in evolution should be.

It all started with keyword search, and this theory came up to try to tame the monster that we call unstructured information. The best way to do this was to ask the algorithm to look for certain keywords and then organize information and pull information accordingly. The next step involved more than just key words and instead of just words, their relevance was also judged which lead to the stage of page ranking. With the search realm now growing and regulation coming in the age of parametric, federated and secure search came in, so that users were now allowed to search for their relevant information from all the information that was needed. We now stand at the crossroads to all this change, where audio, video and all sorts of formats can be searched in detail at the click of a button and now the newest level is that of Integrated Meaning Based Computing or MBC.

In order for users all over the world to fully reap the benefits of integration and borderless access to information, they started collaborating on the internet. Whereas the evolution of collaboration can be traced back to the time of Darwin and his experiments, the principle lies in a very popular euphuism, two heads are better than one.

As the use of the internet increased, collaboration increased and the need for tools that made it easier was felt. Thus collaboration tools were formed so that people from all corners of the world, could work together and benefit from each others experience and expertise. According to Jace Ricafrente, the world is now so fast paced that collaboration is not an advantage, and is actually a necessity for success. Also the new name of the game is not just success but sustained collaborative success. It is only a matter of time, when collaboration tools start becoming free and a new charging model takes over, since high prices for collaboration tools are now seen as a hindrance.

If one chooses to further explore the relationship between taxonomy and the currently available collaboration tools, Dave Clark, Global Taxonomy Director of the Dow Jones Company gives some excellent arguments in favour of e- collaboration and its future. As he puts it, the world will now depend on the collaboration of the best minds when the come together to achieve any objective. In a world of unlimited and unstructured information, it will take the finest to beat the finest at their own game. The common pitfall that over enthusiastic people usually encounter is the problem of not organizing their collaboration effort properly. According to Clark, the areas that need most focus are the preliminary stages and that is where most people falter. Companies or individuals, need to first focus on the Who, What and How of the taxonomy implementation before they actually do anything.

Take the example of the Dow Jones Company, the company has to handle massive volumes of data twenty four hours a day. Over five hundred thousand documents in a twenty four hour day, from over ten thousand sources and in twenty languages. If that is not enough, the company needs to handle over three hundred and ten thousand company codes, over eight hundred and twenty industries, over five hundred and twenty subjects from over three hundred and fourty regions. If even this is not enough to surprise a person lets look at the total figures again. Three point six million documents, from over seven hundred feeds, in one hundred and fifty countries, driven through a sixty terabyte server

Now, on to the Who of the system in place. The Dow Jones Company has a great deal of people working in cross functional teams that need to collaborate all the time. The areas that need help include metatagging, content integration, knowledge management, Information technology and many more. In order to organize and use all the above amounts of data, the cross functionality and search capabilities need to be far superior than any other to ensure proper collaboration for business success.

Within the WHAT category, there are four stages that come around to Asses, Design, Build and Maintain. Only if all of these functions are handled properly will the collaboration be proper. Thus business goals need to be assessed, the taxonomy needs to be picture perfect and user friendliness superior. Only then can the design be built to ensure proper reporting, analysis and assessment of the data that keeps filtering into the system. During the Build phase, proper taxonomic schemas and IT systems need to be put in place to ensure delivery of benchmarked and best practice level service. However, the most important function within the four can be debated between the first and last stage. The last stage includes the Maintain stage. During this stage, the system is seen as constantly work in progress with regular improvements and tweaking taking place. Thus using a customer centric approach Dow Jones continuously engages in focus groups with the end user to ensure that the best possible standards be applied to their system.

Within the How stage, governance and regulation needs to be introduced to ensure that collaboration remains up to the mark with a proper system of checks and balances in place. This is to ensure that the web workspace be efficient, the cross functionality receptive and ready to unforeseen changes as well.
In summary taxonomy lies at the very core of all that we do today. As one of the worlds leading taxonomy experts, Oliver Marks puts it on a comment on ZDnet, if Taxonomy were not adequately used in todays workforce, our lives would amount to chaos with the soundtrack to the tune of U2s I still havent found what Im looking for

As the world gets becomes increasingly globalized there is one thing that holds everything together  the internet. If it was not for the internet, companies would still be a view from the past, and nothing would have changed. It is essentially because of the overflow of information, and since it is properly organized, that knowledge workers all over the world are able to find information that is needed, and then use it to their advantage and eventually trickle it down to the advantage of the customer.

Search engines have changed the very way humans function. Whether it is searching for a cure to an illness, looking up research for an assignment, getting different viewpoints about a news item or finding an old friend, we are hooked to the taxonomy of interrelated information in this age. It doesnt stop at that though. Finding a good book to read, looking up pictures, searching for song lyrics or downloaded sites, the World Wide Web has in fact made us so interconnected that collaboration was the only direction to go in if anyone did not want to be left behind.

It is because of the importance of web search and the taxonomic schemas that surround and bind us together that the topic of this paper is so important. This paper will not only take you through the evolution of web search, but also its advantages and disadvantages. Also, the fight for the share of web search will only continue in our times, and thus you will also find a very detailed comparison of Google and Microsoft newly revamped Bing and how they will change the world as we see it.

How did it happen The evolution of the search engine

As people started joining the internet revolution, people like the founders of Alta Vista and Yahoo realized that it was time to organize everything. This lead to the evolution of the internet search as we know it. The diagram on the next page explains the evolution and the various stages that were passed to reach the stage which now prevails. A stage at which most people think it cannot get easier to search for information, yet the top gurus of search just met last week to discuss and debate the future of this business and what the next step in evolution should be.

It all started with keyword search, and this theory came up to try to tame the monster that we call unstructured information. The best way to do this was to ask the algorithm to look for certain keywords and then organize information and pull information accordingly. The next step involved more than just key words and instead of just words, their relevance was also judged which lead to the stage of page ranking.
With the search realm now growing and regulation coming in the age of parametric, federated and secure search came in, so that users were now allowed to search for their relevant information from all the information that was needed. We now stand at the crossroads to all this change, where audio, video and all sorts of formats can be searched in detail at the click of a button and now the newest level is that of Integrated Meaning Based Computing or MBC.

In order for users all over the world to fully reap the benefits of integration and borderless access to information, they started collaborating on the internet. Whereas the evolution of collaboration can be traced back to the time of Darwin and his experiments, the principle lies in a very popular euphuism, two heads are better than one.

As the use of the internet increased, collaboration increased and the need for tools that made it easier was felt. Thus collaboration tools were formed so that people from all corners of the world, could work together and benefit from each others experience and expertise.

According to Jace Ricafrente, the world is now so fast paced that collaboration is not an advantage, and is actually a necessity for success. Also the new name of the game is not just success but sustained collaborative success. It is only a matter of time, when collaboration tools start becoming free and a new charging model takes over, since high prices for collaboration tools are now seen as a hindrance.

If one chooses to further explore the relationship between taxonomy and the currently available collaboration tools, Dave Clark, Global Taxonomy Director of the Dow Jones Company gives some excellent arguments in favour of e- collaboration and its future. As he puts it, the world will now depend on the collaboration of the best minds when the come together to achieve any objective.

In a world of unlimited and unstructured information, it will take the finest to beat the finest at the own game. The common pitfall that over enthusiastic people usually encounter is the problem of not organizing their collaboration effort properly. According to Clark, the areas that need most focus are the preliminary stages and that is where most people falter. Companies or individuals, need to first focus on the Who, What and How of the taxonomy implementation before they actually do anything.

Take the example of the Dow Jones Company, the company has to handle massive volumes of data twenty four hours a day. Over five hundred thousand documents in a twenty four hour day, from over ten thousand sources and in twenty languages. If that is not enough, the company needs to handle over three hundred and ten thousand company codes, over eight hundred and twenty industries, over five hundred and twenty subjects from over three hundred and fourty regions. If even this is not enough to surprise a person lets look at the total figures again. Three point six million documents, from over seven hundred feeds, in one hundred and fifty countries, driven through a sixty terabyte server

There is a major shift that has taken place in the world of business. As companies become increasingly globalized and the world comes much closer than ever before, customers also have developed to a new degree. They require top tier service, and with a multitude of options at their disposal it is now up to companies to ensure that they have a viable competitive edge to compete for market share as well as share of mind.

If there were one word that would describe the key to success in todays global arena, it would be innovation. Customers now demand a great product at a great price, at the right time and at the right location. Any company that needs to be at the top of its target market segment needs to understand there customers better and then deliver a product that will exceed all expectations.

For this to come about, it is essential that the company hire the best minds. The world has now changed and the old definition of labour does not suit todays environment. Whereas until up to 10 years ago, labour could be defined as manual work, the definition is now all about who is the smartest. Labour in todays market is what we call knowledge workers. It is due to these knowledge workers that companies can crunch numbers and deliver strategies that will out think, out wit, and out perform the competitors. These knowledge workers are now at the core of every industry and drive their respective growth. Whether is be lawyers, doctors, marketers, architects, clarity of thought and supreme knowledge are needed to predict shifting trends before they happen and thus these two qualities are essential for success.

It is with this in mind that the concept of Knowledge management was introduced and has become the latest it word today. Companies need to know what will happen next and instead of the market keeping the company guessing, companies will now keep the market guessing, as to what the next revolution will be and whether or not it will come from there.

How have the internet and search engines changed our lives

Its been almost twenty since the human race first heart the word the World Wide Web, and like most stories of game changing technology trends, once that happened, there was no turning back. We as a people now revolve around the internet. Everything that we do, everywhere we are, the internet somehow or the other remains linked to us. Think about it.

As you read this paper right now, you will realize that a majority of this research has been done off the internet, with the help of some search engine. When you go home, tired after a days work of teaching and checking papers, you would want to switch one the television and relax. Want to find out what is good on the television today You can just search it. I actually wouldnt be surprised if you even make your deadlines and goal charts on the internet on sites like rememberthemilk.com.

Heres what even more interesting. I first heard about this site on another site, and then since I did not remember the name and wanted to write it in this assignment I search make lists and milk and found it. That is the pure beauty of the internet and the search engine. There is no stopping it, and there is no stopping us from getting hooked on it either.

But has all this change been all for the better. Weigand (2008) of the Korean IT times tends to take a diplomatic view on this issue. According to him, there are certain pros and cons both associated with the internet and its almost stupendous growth and social inclusion pattern at warp speed.

The pros are quite obvious. Anything we want, literally anything, we can search for and find in a matter of seconds. Social networks have not only helped to find long lost friends and let people keep up to date, but with the introduction of tools such as Linkedin.com and its competitors, business associates can also network and hugely increase their chance at collaboration as well as moves to greener pastures.

Another interesting point that Weigand (2008) raises is how newspapers and other forms of popular media were the bastion of democracy of the past, and now the internet is all of them combined into one. Thus all information, with all sides of the story, and varied opinions from all extremes as well as milder views, are available through the internet.

The last pro internet search argument that Weigand (2008) gives is that the internet is a tool for the truth. A recent example is of the Iranian elections and how bloggers tweeted their opinions about the election results.
The cons however are equally marginalizing. Since there is almost no control over the internet, thus there remains a great deal of filth and crime that exists on the internet and search engines. Lawless and daily perversions such as child pornography are easily accessible.

Since there is no control the internet also becomes a source of lies as well as mass unrest. Slander is easy to use and since everyone remains so inter connected these days, the term spreading like wildfire seems outdated when one talks about Tweeting or social networking updates.

Not only has the internet and search changed us socially, but it has in many ways, forced a complete 360 degree turn around in the way that business is now conducted. Whereas the Dow Jones Company stated above would suffice, that is one example of how a company now makes taxonomy and search engines the very core of their operations.

Since everything can be searched, analyzing businesses is much easier than ever before. If an analyst needs to predict trends, they can just look up the financial history by looking up trend sites and easily predict how a certain company stock will perform. Analyzing financial statements has become so much easier since now anyone can easily not only look up the history, but also within a matter of minutes, find different analyst view points available either for free or via a payed source.

Essentially, internet search has greatly reduced the lead time associated with all sorts of tasks. Sourcing has become easier, since now through networking sites, any supplier can search for potential buyers, and buyers can find the best supplier fit for their product.

The same deems true for consultants as well. They can find clients by searching according to the relevant string that they enter and relevant search results by page ranking methods can easily help them continue business.

However talking about internet search remains incomplete without mentioning the market that is currently available, and within that lays Microsofts Bing and Google.

Microsofts Bing .vs. Google  What is better

Mark Hachman, author of the article How Google has changed our lives describes Google as a black hole in the universe of online information, and no one can dare dispute it. When Google entered the market with its new algorithm and taxonomic structure, it literally enveloped and digested all the information available on the internet, so much so, that all the competitors, were left orbiting around it, rather than being able to compete head to head.

It was also the first business to use a completely different business model, which was something unseen in the industry and it took the competition completely by surprise. However the competition has been plotting for a long time and now is ready.

When Microsofts Bing was launched early last year, analysts predicted it as the Google killer that Microsoft had been working on for the longest time. Greg Sterling, at Search Engine land, one of the internets most trusted sources for search engine news, says that Bing is definitely not that.

As he puts its anything but. It is a massive improvement over the old Windows Live Search, and brings interesting additions such as categorized classifications, a search history, instant answers, price comparisons based on future trends and the like however still does not bring anything majorly new to the table and thus cannot really be called the one that will dethrone Google.

An advantage that Bing search does however bring to the table is the fact that images can be searched according to size and thus there are more classifications when it comes to image search. Also the image search gives a much richer interface than Google, however what really remains to be seen is if it can get Google loyalists to switch. According to Sterling

Microsoft has integrated the HYPERLINK httpsearchengineland.comofficial-microsoft-buys-powerset-14305 Powerset technologyto varying degrees and made numerous algorithmic improvements on the back end that are largely opaque to me. More obvious are the interface upgrades and changes. While many people are accustomed  even habituated  to the Google UI, I appreciated the often richer visual presentation and generally cleaner organization of Bing SERPs

The majority of analysts that have compared the two and say that they both beat each other at certain instances but the search experience remains largely the same. The thing to watch out for however remains the deal that is being negotiated with Yahoo and how the new improved Bing with Yahoo will compete with Googles share of the search market

According to Jared Newman and PC World Magazine, Microsofts share of the search market had started to increase rapidly with the introduction of Bing. However, the newly acquired numbers can be owed largely to Bing eating into Yahoos market rather than Googles. December datafrom comScore pegs Bings share at 10.7 percent of searches, compared to Yahoos 17.3 percent. Google, meanwhile, continues to grow, nabbing an extra 0.1 percent of searches in December to reach 65.7 percent.

A Bing Yahoo deal will mean that through Yahoos backend search, Bing will be able to triple the number of search queries that it currently accesses and this can greatly empower the current system. The extra data will speed up Bings automated learning, helping the search engine return more relevant results, especially with rare queries. In other words, Bing will have a better chance of finding what youre looking for the first time around.

Microsoft keeps saying that the Yahoo-Bing deal will solve search problems, and thus making the first inquiry time faster and more relevant. Thus this can be treated and seen as a huge advantage over the competition. However, according to Googles research, it was shown that internet search users the world over prefer the Google logo on their search page.

How will it end No person can really predict it right now. Eventually there has to be a new competitor that will challenge not only Google, because that remains the cycle that technology tends to take. What remains to be seen is whether the internet search market can be any different.

PC world magazine gives quite an interesting analytical insight into the difference between the two search giants, as well as some comments about Yahoo Search as well. We will now engage in a blow by blow comparison of the two competitors

The homepage Bings home page is the ultimate guide to all that it has to offer. It is well organized and gives shortcuts to other Microsoft owned destinations on the web which include sites such as MSN, Windows Live as well as Bing Travel. Also the flashy photography that is used as the backdrop of the home page is visually stunning. However with other such sites, Bing is incredibly quick and light weight which only ads to the advantage. Google on the other hand keeps it totally simple. There latest change has even made it simpler  and the reason They want to focus purely on the search on hand and nothing else

Search results Search results for Bing have two main components a left-hand navigation panel of Quick Tabs that allow you to focus your search fast and a center row of Categorized Search results, which simply group results in logical categories. Search results include instant answers, deep links, and multimedia. Google and Yahoo search results are delivered no-frills-style with blue links descending from most to least relevant. Both of these search engines deliver results that may include instant answers, deep links, and multimedia. Bing again wins on the due to visual appeal.

Pop search The great thing about Yahoo Is that it doesnt just stop at giving artist information and lyrics, it even displays videos from the artist, and if the user wants, he can just listen to the music by clicking on the streaming audio player... Bing delivers videos that you can preview simply by hovering your cursor over them. Google offers videos by the artist as well, but they arent as prominently displayed as on Bing and Yahoo.

Airfare service With the inclusion ofForecast technologyin Bing Travel, Microsoft has the edge over Google and Yahoo in locating the best and cheapest flights. Farecast charts the ups and downs of airfares for a particular itinerary in recent months and predicts what theyre likely to be in the near future. Yahoo offers similar tools for comparing prices and adjusting your itinerary on-the-fly for maximum savings. Google doesnt offer a cheap-flight-finding service.

Hotel service The same Farecast technology that Bing uses with airline ticket pricing works for hotel reservations, too. Bing Travel results show you a Hotel Deals listing when you search for accommodations within a specific region. Bing calculates the historical price of a room at a specific hotel, compares that price with the current rate being offered, and identifies whether the current price is a good deal. Yahoo Travel alerts you to Getaway Sale pricing for hotel rooms when such pricing is available. Yahoo Travel search results display Good Deal tags when the bargain pricing is part of a promotion offered through Yahoo, and not a low rate based on historic data. Yahoo also makes it easy to find your price range and user ratings quickly with tab navigation at the top of search results. Google doesnt offer a travel service.

Refined search Bings search-refining tools, called the Explorer Pane, show up on every search. With both Yahoo and Google, the users have to make an extra click to gain access to similar tools. In the upper left corner,

Video search Bings interface for viewing, browsing, and refining search results is slicker than that of its predecessor, Microsoft Live Search. Tools, located on the left of the screen, offer refinements for video length, screen size, resolution, and source. Hovering over a video screen-capture with your mouse triggers the video to start playing. Google lets you find your video search by duration and source, and also allows you to choose the layout of the search results--grid, list,

Shopping With the Bing Shopping service, product search pages emphasize user reviews culled from a multitude of sites. The service also offers tabbed navigation for product details and reviews, and the left-side Explorer Tab provides access to additional related searches. Hooks to theBing Cash back program (video)are hard to miss, as Bing heavily promotes retailer participants and the program itself. Google highlights price in its Google Shopping service.

Going local Bing presents a very nice overview of local restaurants, with aggregate scores for things such as overall quality and atmosphere, as well as specifics for factors such as portion size. Google offers maps, star ratings, photos, and user content to facilitate delving into the details about a local business. Yahoo provided limited information about the local restaurant that I searched for. Yahoo delivered overall star ratings, a map, business hours, and pricing information.

Health Bing provides shortcuts to top-notch health resources such as the Mayo Clinic when you search for diabetes, influenza, or other health-related issues. Using the Explorer Pane, users can drill down into symptoms and prevention categories. Yahoo Health search results pull up details on topics such as influenza, plus additional information on symptoms, causes, and treatments. Yahoo Health also lists informational videos related to your search. However Googles big health strategy has less to do with search and more to do withGoogle Health, a program for storing your medical records online, finding doctors, and connecting with online health services.

Maps Bing Maps offers nothing that Live Search didnt already have. But both Bing (at the bottom) and Google Maps supply a great many controls and direction tools in the balloon window that marks the address youre seeking. Google has cool map tools such as Street Views, while Bing counters with amazingly crisp Birds Eye View images of many towns and cities. Yahoo breaks out direction tools in the left side of the Web page. Yahoo Maps gives you the option of viewing satellite images however, images we saw of the Boston area seemed old compared with the satellite images offered by Bing and Google Maps.

As discussed in detail before, Bing is no Google killer. However, with an integration of Yahoo Search and Bing on the horizon, Google needs to get their act together when it comes to Futurecast technology that both Yahoo and Bing currently lead in. Bing is in summary, much more visually appealing, lighter, quicker and more futuristic. It is what the consumers have been asking for and Microsoft knows it. However, you never really know, Google is known for surprising its customers with game changing ideas all the time. With the company now exploring new avenues such as the mobile phone and tablet market, it needs to realize that their days as number one are numbered if they dont innovate quickly.

In todays world, every human endeavor is hinged on technology. In politics, candidates use social networking sites to reach the masses of voters. In commerce, the Internet has become the center of online banking, business transactions and advertisement. However, no sector has reaped from information technology more than education. The number of learners at any given time notwithstanding, learning is a compulsory stage of passage for any individual conscious of the competitive nature of life. As Lyndon B. Johnson once observed, We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors (qtd in Adkins et al 2009). The implication of the changing trends in the modern world is that more people, governments, organizations and institutions are turning to information technology as the bridge to the next world stage. Education, in particular, has integrated technology into the learning process to make it effective. In the following section, the paper examines the many ways in which technology has made education accessible, current, relevant and convenient to learners and educators.

The need to integrate modern technology into the education curriculum was to address a gap left by outdated and old approaches to learning. Quoting Brian McElfish, technology coordinator and mathematics instructor at the Serrano International School in Lake Forest, CA, Adkins et al(2010) note that old technologies lower interest in learners, and fact giving them the freedom to use current technology in what, for them, may be new and untraditional ways seems to create a sense of buy-in to the material.

By motivating learners through new and exciting approaches and teaching methodologies, technology improves the productivity of the whole learning process. Justin Hall, an American freelance journalist and pioneer blogger from Chicago, Illinois, notes in one of his writing reviews that new technologies are necessary to keep learner motivation. He quotes a participant in the Tokyo Game Show, who says that Students get bored with traditional teaching styles. I like to provide top notch education with a flare of entertainment (Hall 2010).

Besides presenting learners with a variety of stimuli and engaging them directly in active participation, it also makes communication and interaction easier and faster. In a research on the impact of mobile technology on learning Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Solvberg et al (2010) shows that learners were able to access learning materials faster from the library, interact with others as well as share information. In addition, it prepared learners for the actual learning through prior communication and briefing. Their performance was improved by emphasizing on shared attention and outlining of learner expectations before lectures.

Distance learning and online education have facilitated education by making it accessible to many people without necessarily having to attend classes. In this regard, time and resources are saved by cutting on the costs of travel for the learner and educator, and learning resources for institutions. Today, learners do not need to be seated in front of their instructors. Many learning centers have integrated online courses to cater for a large number of students who otherwise could not fit into a single lecture hall, or be taught effectively by one instructor. Online learning has also made it possible for instructors to assess their students, as well as get feedback for assignments via the Internet. Most colleges and universities have also developed websites where learners can interact with their lecturers, do exams and earn online.

The use of visuals as a teaching aid has been made easier and effective because of technology. The computer, for instance, offers an effective media to use audio and video tapes as tools for learning. Similarly, the use of PowerPoint presentations and animations increases the interactive and participation level of learners. Besides arousing and sustaining the interest of students, they assist teachers in explaining abstract ideas and concepts. In situations where a large number of learners is involved, overhead projectors offer visual effects in a more effective manner, than could do a chart or drawing. These learning aids have been rated to be more effective than textbooks, since they have the hooking effect to arrest learners attentiveness and attendance (ArticlesBase2010).    

The web provides a huge information source. By acting as pooling center, it hosts a lot of cumulative information from scholars and researchers. Unlike the publishing of books, posting information is very fast, cheap and efficient. In fact, it takes a few minutes to update an article or document in the web, instead of the years it would take to edit a book. In this respect, technology has made it possible for learners engage in research oriented fields like medicine to keep abreast with the latest and relevant discoveries (Gura and Percy 69). Since new researches are done frequently and new knowledge discovered almost daily, the Internet becomes the easiest way to verify information and share it with other interested parties.

Accessing information and knowledge would be tedious and cumbersome were it not for the web. Since large volumes of information are available on any given topic, it would be difficult to peruse through large files or books in print. Locating the desired information source itself will take long hours of searching in the library. As such, technology makes information readily, easily and conveniently available by just typing in the correct search words and clicking. The search engines promptly provide any inquirer with numerous results of the sought information, which is easily sorted out by scrolling to get the relevant article. Therefore, doing research is made easier for learners and teachers who would like to consult a wide range of sources for literature reviews, consultation and verification.

In the developing world, the provision of learning facilities such as buildings and books is a milestone. According to a UN survey, technology has enabled learning institutions and students in these countries to access information and knowledge via the web, which in other circumstances they could not purchase through books or hire qualified instructors. The UN GAID (Global Alliance for ICT and Development), established in 2006, is involved in encouraging the use of information technology to promote and facilitate education especially in the third world. It focuses on the use of IT as a tool to disseminate and share knowledge across a wide spectrum. It also aims to address challenges like lowering cost of access in the developing world developing inclusive technologies for the disabled producing low-cost computers and reducing barriers to ICT use and diffusion in key sectors of the economy and society, including enterprises, governments, education, tourism, agriculture, financial services and rural and civil society institutions (United Nations 2010).Through corroboration and joint ventures, institutions can use technology to improve the quality of education.

A number of agents have shown significant effect on cardiac function and cause disorders related to arrhythmia. Some of the chemicals have a potential to cause bradycardia, the slowing of the heart rhythm, while others can cause tachycardia, the quickening of the heart rhythm. Vaughan (1992) points out that agents such as caffeine, amphetamine, cocaine, psychotropics, beta blockers and sympathomimetics have exhibited potential effects on the heart rate both in vivo and in vitro. Conditions such as temperature can also cause significant changes on the heart rate. This paper will examine examples of other causes of arrhythmia and relate the causes to the effect on the heart rate. The consequence of arrhythmia can either be detrimental or beneficial to the heart function and these effects can be transient or long-term effect depending on the cause.

The human heart is made up of four chambers consisting of two auricles and two ventricles which contract in a coordinated and a precise manner. Heart contraction is initiated with an electrical impulse with the SA (sinoartrial) node acting as a natural pacemaker. This signal then leaves the SA node to enter the upper chambers or auricles. From the auricles, the signal enters the AV (artriolventriclular) node and then through the lower chambers of the heart (ventricles). However, mistakes may occur along the pathway resulting to arrhythmic (bradycardia or tachycardia) conditions (Vaughan, 1992). Interruption in the energy conduction in cardiac cells can lead to bradycardia, a reduced heart rate. A fast heart rate can result from defect ventricles, a condition called ventricular tachycardia.   Supraventricular tachycardia causes the fibrillation of the atria and AVNRT (atriventricular nodal reentry tachycardia). Vaughan (1992) identifies that  arrhythmia can be blamed on several agents such as caffeine, amphetamines, beta blockers, cocaine, sympathomimetics and psychotropic agents to be responsible for arrhythmia. Supraventricular arrhythmias can be a lifelong problem and can impact the lifestyle of the afflicted patient and family and friends. However, with the advent of radiation technology, radiofrequency ablation greatly replaces the lifelong dependency on drug therapy.

Agents such as calcium channel blockers and beta blockers have been employed in reducing the pace of the heart while anti-arrhythmic drugs raise the heart rate significantly to the normal pace. Tachycardia is mistaken to the increase in cardiac output. This concept, in theory, may be conceived as tachycardia being an activator of the heart. However, tachycardia is a serious life threatening condition which is indicative of high blood pressure. Attempts by drug abusers to gulp dozes of cardiac activators are risky and can complicate the entire cardiac system.  

Heart chamber is a terminology employed in referring to the four chambers of the heart. The four chambers are the right atrium, the right ventricle, left atrium and the left atrium.

The four chambers of the heart function to offer a pathway for blood. The blood is first taken to the lungs for oxygenation and then supplied to the rest of the body for life to be sustained. This transportation of blood throughout the body cannot take place without the chambers of the heart (Nin, 1959).

The right atrium
Oxygen-depleted blood is drained into this chamber from the inferior and superior vena cava. The blood is then pumped through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. This chamber also receives blood from the coronary sinuses. The coronary sinuses are the outlet of the coronary circulation. This chamber also affects the rate of heart beat via barroreceptors in its surface. The barroreceptors respond to decrease in the supply of blood by raising the heart beats. Low supply results in the stimulation of vagus nerve resulting in slowed heart beats (Nin, 1959).

The two atria perform an endocrine function. They perform this with the removal of atrial natriuretic pepride (ANP). This is released when the atria is stretched. ANP works to reduce heart beats, decrease pre-load, and raise urinary output, stimulating the vagus nerve and inhibiting ventricular hypertrophy (Nin, 1959).

The right ventricle
This chamber collects oxygen-depleted blood from the right atrium. The blood is then pumped through the pulmonary valve into the lungs.  It is alienated from the left ventricle by the septum. The purpose of this chamber is to pump out blood through the pulmonic valve. This blood is ejected into the pulmonary arteries.  The left ventricle pumps blood against a diastolic pressure, that is, pressure before contraction, of 80. The thickness of the walls of this chamber in a grown up is 4-5mm. This chambers myocardial blood supply is mainly from coronary artery.  This chamber is usually involved in an inferior myocardial infraction (MI) (Nin, 1959).

The left atrium
This chamber collects oxygenated blood from the lungs through the pulmonary veins. The blood is then pumped through the mitral valve into the left ventricle. Just like the right atrium, this chamber performs several functions. It is the atrial kick to the left heart. It influences the heart beat rate and has endocrine functions. Most of these functions are performed in a similar manner as the right atrium. The walls of this chamber are slightly thicker than for the right atrium, at 3mm (Nin, 1959).

The left ventricle
This chamber collects oxygenated blood from the left atrium. From this chamber the blood is pumped to the entire body through the aortic valve via the aorta. This is the largest chamber of the heart. It accounts for the most of the interior and left lateral surfaces. This chamber occupies most of the hearts apex. The walls of this chamber are 8-15 mm, even if at the tip of the apex the thickness can be as little as 2mm (Nin, 1959).
Starlings Law is used in explaining the disparity in the amount of blood injected from the ventricles. The more the wall of the chamber is stretched, the more the force of the contraction is, and thus the more the blood injected (Nin, 1959).    

This research paper will address topics such as internationalization of markets, FDI, International trade, political forces, and other related material all with reference to Google. The paper will begin with an introduction to Google and its various products. It will then address various topics relevant to the course with reference to Google.

About Google
Google is a global Internet company that deals with Internet software and services market. What makes Google one of the biggest Internet companies is its huge revenue from its advertising business which is well-known in the industry. Google is headquartered in its Mountain View, California complex. Googles current Presidents are Sergey Brin and Larry Page and its current CEO is Eric Schmidt. Googles revenue for last year was  21,795.6 and currently it employs 20,222 employees.

Google was founded by  Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both of whom were Stanford graduates who founded Google in mid 1990s and later raised 1million to start Google. By the end of 2000 the Google had an index of more than 1.3 million web pages. The company became one of the top 100 companies in the software industry and since then has expanded internationally. It opened its domains in many other countries in the world capturing more and more Internet users.  It has constantly worked on developing new and innovative products ranging from Google Voice Search (in 2001), Froogle (online shopping), Google Blogger (in 2002), Gmail (in 2004), Google Mini (in 2005), Google Video store, (in 2006) to Google App Engine (in 2008). The companys IPO took place in August 2004 on NASDAQ Stock Exchange. Not only has it developed through its innovative products, but has acquired several companies to maintain a good position in the industry. In 2006 Google Inc acquired several companies including Urchin software. The company has shown its presence in Asia too. Its major alliances were with News Corporations Fox Interactive Media and E-bay in 2006. The Google has been trying to take over Yahoo to maintain its consistent position as a market player, though it has not been yet finalized.

Products and Services
Google has been repeatedly cited as the worlds one of the most innovative companies and Fast Magazine published it as the most innovative company in 2008 (Fast Company Staff, 2008). It is called the most innovative company because of the products it has produced and services it offers. Google.com is a search engine used by majority of its users as its main offering. Other offerings include its Google Books, Google Image, Google News, Google Scholars, Google Video and others.  

Another set of its offerings are applications which can be used by users to perform various functions. Google Docs is a Microsoft Word like application which helps users make spreadsheets, word documents, and presentations online. Google Calendar helps them plan their time. Gmail is an email application allowing users to make an email account. Another application is Google Groups which allows like-minded people to make online groups. Other applications include Google Reader, Orkut, and YouTube.

The third set of its offerings are Client applications. One of them is Google Toolbar which enables users to perform various functions from their browser. Google chrome is its new Internet browser famous for its speed and reliability. Picasa and Google Desktop are its other client applications. Google GEO is another set of its offerings which mainly include products like Google Earth and Maps helping users to navigate their location. Google has also introduced some products for the Mobile Phone users which mainly include Android and enable mobile phone users to use it as an operating system. Android allows users to use Google Maps, Blogger, and GOOG-411 on their mobile phones. Google Checkout is another product of Google making payments for online purchases simpler.

Apart from the products mentioned above, Google also has plans of introducing a new operating system which will radically be different from the operating systems which are currently on the market. It is called Chrome OS. Many others are in the pipeline and Google Labs is the name given to website which gives details about all the new products that engineers at Google are working on.

Globalization
Globalization in economic terms refers to the inter-connectedness of the national marketseconomies into one international marketeconomy and this integration has been brought about by the decreasing trade barriers, direct foreign investment, and emergence of technology (Jadish, 2004). The process of globalization has come to have a significant impact on our environment, social lives, development, and of course businesses.

Globalization is not a new phenomenon as the world has been moving toward making this world a global village since long but the process has sped in the last few decades. The various reasons for the high speed of globalization process over the last few decades are due to the following facts technology has advanced at an enormous pace, countries have reduced trade barriers to minimum, international and regional organizations have also played an important role in the globalization of this world. Globalization has opened doors for many big and small companies who benefited from the globalizing world and have significantly increased their revenues.

As mentioned earlier, many sectors have benefited from the globalization and one of these sectors is IT sector including the companies running their businesses online. Companies like Amazon, EBay, Apple, Microsoft, and Google have a huge customer base outside their home country. Google, Inc is a global company having its offices in many countries such as Australia, France, Germany, China, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Japan, and India. As of 30th September, 2008, it employs 20,123 employees in its offices around the world which makes it a huge global company (Google Investor FAQs, n.d.).

Googles offices might be located in a few countries around the world but its users are located in almost every country many of whom religiously use Google for their search queries. Googles mission in every country is to provide the best experience to the customer. It is because of this that its foreign revenue has kept increasing since its inception. Its foreign operations began soon after its inception and online users visited Google through positive word of mouth generated by the initial users. Today Google is available in more than 100 languages which speak volumes about its global nature.

In short, Google has capitalized on the shrieked size of this world and has penetrated in all the countries of the world by offering various innovative services. This is not to say that the Google does not face any problems operating in other countries. Google has to follow the laws of foreign countries to continue operating there. Sometimes it also lands Google into courts.

Global Business and Legal Challenges
With the many benefits that globalization has brought for the business organizations it also brings complex challenges for business organizations. One of these is the legal challenge. In this section, we would discuss the legal aspects of global business. For any company which wants to enter the new market successfully, it has to fully understand the legal system of that country. This way it would save itself a lot of trouble as any mistake on the part of the company can get company to incur losses. Earlier we said that globalization has eased the barriers to foreign investment but the increasing investment by companies in various countries has led to governments creating complex laws that companies have to adhere to (Cuizon, 2009).

Companies have to realize that laws on the same issues might be different in different countries and they have to understand the differences before a company enters any country. The company has to ensure that its rules and regulations are in synch with that of the laws of the country in which it is operating. It is not that the country- specific business laws and international business laws are different because there are similarities in the laws. A company should identify these similarities and use to its advantage.

There are some issues that companies need to take special care of. First comes the recruitment. When recruiting employees, a company has to understand the local employment laws and contract laws. It also needs to ensure that only those people are selected who are called fit in domestic relations law and these include laws related to issues such as marriage, divorce etc. Another important issue is of working hours. Some countries have stringent laws governing the issue of working hours. In some countries a business day is 8 hours long while in others it is 7 hours long. Sexual harassment is another very important issue that companies have to take care of in their rules and regulations and companies have to ensure that their sexual harassment laws are in synch with national laws.

Minimum wage issue has also to be addressed in the company rules and regulations. The government mainly announces a minimum wage every year which companies have to take note of. It is very clear that Google will not face any issue as for as minimum wage policy is concerned as Google pays its employees a very handsome pay regardless of the location of the employees. Apart from the issues mentioned above, there are other issues that companies have to learn about. Taxation is one of them and this is an issue that is of utmost importance for many companies. Many companies hire special taxation lawyers to take care of this issue. Google has to take care of various privacy laws as well because it has been accused of violating privacy rights of users. In the following paragraphs we will discuss some legal challenges that Google has faced abroad.

Millions of online users use Google to search for their queries and this leads to Google accumulating a lot of personal information of the users. Google stores this information into its servers and it is there for around 24 months before it is deleted. In Europe, Google faced criticism from the European Union and some non-governmental organizations on this issue (Information Management Journal, 2007). Google contends that the information it collects on users, mainly concerning search terms and number of times the website has been visited, is beneficial in improving companys services, leading to better user experience as well. The EU and other organizations wanted Google to reduce the time period over which data is stored. Succumbing to the pressure of the above mentioned groups, Google decided to reduce the time period by six months and it now stores the information for 18 months. This is one of the issues that Google faced abroad.

Another significant issue that Google has faced globally is Copyrights issue. Google has digitized many books and has made them available online through its Google Books service. It has also received criticism though that Google is violating intellectual property rights by publishing the work of various authors online. A case in point is the criticism that Google has received from European publishers (VNU Staff, 2005). The publishing organizations in Europe claim that European laws do not allow Google to digitize the works published by European publishers. In America Google justifies its digitization of copyrighted material on the ground that these works are intended for fair use but according to European laws fair dealing is not as broad as the fair use in America.

Another legal issue that Google faced emerged when it wanted to name its Smartphone as Nexus One which is almost the same as the name of the novel of Philip K. Dick Nexus-6 Robots (Mobile Magazine, 2009). The daughter of the author has raised this issue and she claims that Google never consulted her on the issue. Google could not name its Smartphone as Nexus One if the daughter wins the battle.

Conclusion
In the light of the above discussion, it can be said that globalization has opened new avenues for companies to do businesses abroad. It has actually played an important role in the success of many international ventures. This brought about the favorable policies adopted by the governments which led to reduced trade barriers. Favorable policies were complemented by the advancement in technology which exponentially sped up in the last few decades. There is other side to globalization as well. Because of globalization, many companies started investing in different countries and this led to governments devising complex laws governing the entry of foreign companies. If a company is to survive through the laws of that operating country, it has to make conscious efforts to understand the laws of that country.

Google has attracted a customer base which is located in almost every country of the world. No doubt that it has been successful in many countries it has entered. Still, it has faced some challenges with regards to laws of the countries. This paper gave some examples which showed that different countries might have different laws and a company has to abide to those laws. Google did the same even when it meant less business for them. One thing has to be noted about Google here that it is a huge company and can afford to fight long legal battles.