A superb article by John Hiler in his site (Microcontent News) titled Google’s War on Hierarchy, and the Death of Hierarchical Folders. Dated May 2005, it has come somewhat belatedly to my attention. In the article, Hiler proposes the demise of the folder heirarchy file storage system in favour of just searching for the file you want - oh, and Google plays a key part in all this (they pop up everywhere - I’m almost afraid to mention the ‘G’ name again so soon!). The front page of Hiler’s site features others’ comments on the article.
In case you are wondering what he is going on about, those of you who have used Gmail (Google’s free webmail service - but still only available by invitation) will have experienced it for real. Gmail encourages the use of search to find your stored emails rather than placing them in folders by subject. In fact you can just move all your read emails to the ‘archive’. Gmail also offers descriptive ‘labels’ (more generally known as ‘tags’ - another concept whose time has come) to attach to your emails and a massive 2+MB of storage. The reasoning is that, one you have stored a large number of emails (or files) the folder system becomes less practical. I know I often have to think hard about just where I stored that important file. Whereas, just typing in a few key words about it in a Google-style search box could locate it in a jiffy. In fact, that is here already in the shape of Google Desktop, a downloadable search facility which will index everything on your PC and helpfully provide a search box to find it all. (Note that there have been reservations about privacy - also with Gmail - concerning what information Google stores about you and your files/emails).
So, just as web search long ago shifted from the original Yahoo!-style ‘web directories’ hand-picked by humans (equivalent to folders) to Google-style open search - especially when Google introduced its PageRank algorithm (adapted from bibliographical citation analysis - but using weblinks instead), just as that shift happened, Hiler proposes that email and desktop search are now beginning to (and will eventually fully) migrate from folder storage systems to keyword search finding systems. And Hiler takes the whole thing much further: postulating ‘GDrive’ - storing all files on virtual hard drives in “boundless free [web] storage, with a searchable interface freely provided by Google”.
I use Gmail (in parallel with other email services). It takes time to get used to Gmail’s method of email ‘filing’: moving everything into one archive after years of messing with large numbers of folders. And this is the main obstacle - it takes effort to get used to and trust this new way of working. Folders feel ’safe’ and familiar; I feel I am ‘on top of my work’ when it is neatly filed away in the appropriate folders. Using the keyword search felt like giving up much of my own control over my work - but now I have begun to experience the benefits it seems like the way to go.
John Hiler has written a really superb article (the first of three) which also manages to include fascinating potted histories of web search, email and the folder system of file management. And who knew that Yahoo was an acronym of “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”?