Global Information Flows.

INFORMATION superhighway; INFORMATION resources; INTERNET searching; GEOPOLITICS; INFORMATION networks; INFORMATION technology

This article discusses the flow of business information globally. Increased Internet access has opened up an enormous number of resources that come in many languages and are sourced from any countries. Yet there are parts of the world that lack the rich information resources North American searchers, and their European counterparts, take for granted. Sometimes the problem is infrastructure, sometimes it's financial, and, on more occasions than information professionals would like, it is geopolitical. However, it is the geopolitical aspect of global information flows that really grabs people's attention. It has become apparent that Web search engines are inconsistent in the answers they give to search queries.