As Gigolo Joe said to David in the movie Artificial Intelligence, “In this day and age, David, nothing cost more than information.” Just look around you. Our world today is like nothing anyone has ever seen before. And today, in a Web 2.0 emerging world, information is more readily available and more valuable than ever before. With this, we need the ability to access information, and today we do it on demand and quickly. Enter mobile devices. We need to get answers on the go too, right? JupiterResearch estimates there are over 180 million mobile phone users in the United States.
Any kind of information, news, stock quotes, phone numbers, directions… Can one imagine not being able to get this info whenever they wish? It’s a fairly new concept and there exists many services that assist in this. AskMeNow.com is a new service which allows anyone to phone a toll-free number and verbally ask for any information. Within seconds or minutes a text is received on your wireless device with the answer. There was another information service, Infone, a directory information service with more than listings, but they recently went under. I use a concierge service that comes with my credit card. It’s great knowing I can get assistance and information 24 hours a day.
News. Probably the most available information out there. Whether on your phone, on the radio, or the Internet, access to news 24 hours a day is easy. Google News is part of a whole network of news aggregators feeding news 24 hours a day. Akamai tracks online usage for news. As I’m writing this there’s about 1.8 million visitors per minute to news sites worldwide. Mobily, more than 24 million mobile phone subscribers (13.4%) retrieved news via their phone’s browser.
Citizen produced information is huge now, with Wikis, social net
works, Gather.com’s concept, and easy to create web pages for sharing one’s expert knowledge. I’ve discovered Squidoo, a neat service that allows you to create sites filled with information that you know about. And when I want an answer to a question I head to Answers.com. Or even for those hard to find answers, just ask Brainboost.com. Our world is so different. We’re all smart in our own ways and when we contribute to something big, we all have the answers.
It’s funny how technology has changed things so much. Most of my friends are reachable 24 hours a day, and when I find someone who doesn’t have a mobile or checks their email less than twice a day, or doesn’t IM I flip! My mother makes a session of emailing. For me, it’s part of my day, something normal you constantly check. I do admit it gets bad, to the point where at work I email co-workers sitting literally feet away from me a question when I could simply speak to them.
