Let’s think about how important recording daily life, feelings and history are. Nearly all people around the world use some kind of tools such as photos, diaries, or audio to record what they are interested in and save for uses. Where to display those memories? Traceback to 1945, from the article “As We May Think”, Vannevar presented Memex, an imaginary memory carrier with a furniture form. Like what Bush said “It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory”, memex had a huge repository which seems won’t be filled within hundreds of years.
What about in the current real world? Memex reminds me of the star button on current Google Chrome. When you need to save a website for later, you don’t have to copy and paste the link over and over. Instead, just click the sat button and set up as a bookmark. You can even group links into different folders. The huge memory stage of Google Chrome is like the library of the memex, which provides all the trails you have visited. You have the freedom to category those memories too, which representing the index.
Another term from memex that is widely used for a lot of platforms is the recall. Just tap the button and, suddenly, the page turned back to the top. Tons of users are receiving benefits from this micro-interaction feature from the apps.
What special with SE such as Google Chrome is that once you connect the device with your account, all the trails (as you wish). Unlike memex working as physical support, Google Chrome broke the wall of location limitation.
The google chrome features do sound very similar with Memexs’. This further proves how visionary Vannevar was.
It’s good to relate Memex with famously-known products like Google Chrome. It helps to understand it’s context and impact.