ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a step back to look at why change happens. The search engines that were around at the time were struggling both to crawl the rapidly expanding web and to deliver the most relevant search results. The technology arrives, the behaviour arrives, sometimes one arrives first, mostly they arrive pretty much at the same time, and each one leads to tweaks and further changes in the other: the technology-push and demand-pull pillars of technological change. Each new online outpouring of anger; of public will; of campaigning for change, encourages people to believe that what they say and do collectively carries more weight than opinions reflected in the traditional media. As the technology and behaviour mature and become embedded in the culture, those other two wheels – markets and regulation – take a bigger role in driving people's truck of change.
