Ask any Internet user and they’ll probably tell you the same thing: the Internet wouldn’t be the same without Google. While that may be true in some respect (and possibly most respects), it occured to me today that there is one drawback to Google’s efficiency: fewer websurfers are getting lost on the Internets.

Thanks to Google’s uber-efficient PageRank, search results are often returned with laser-like focus. While that’s great for finding information you want, it cuts down on information you found that you didn’t think you wanted. It seems I am uncovering fewer “happy accidents” when searching the web now. The instances where I unexpectedly find something new and interesting has been greatly reduced by the efficiency of Google.

Yes there’s an enormous amount of information on the web, and that data demands to be organized. Still, by relying on what the rest of the world considers important (a la PageRank) one may miss the new, unique ideas just gaining acceptance. PageRank almost guarantees your search results will be anything but cutting-edge. It values staleness. It gives results that are majority-rules. A majority-rules search engine can’t help but serve up the haystack instead of the needle.

I miss the days of unpredictable results. I miss the irrelevant results I used to get. Before Google tamed the Web, a search engine was a Russian-roulette ride through a young forest of Internet sites. Now its straight to the point, cutting out some potential magic. With all the information now on the Internet, having a human guide (or at the least a little randomness thrown in) is more valuable than ever.