John Hiler takes a long look at the ways in which Google is challenging the traditional, hierarchical modes of finding and organizing information and changing the way people search for information on the Web but also in email and, perhaps most disruptively (and threateningly for Microsoft), their desktops.

Writes John: "Hierarchical Folders have helped us manage information for decades. They've proven themselves as some of the most flexible tools ever created: organizing wildly different industries, from Web Directories, to Email and Desktop File Systems.

"But Folders rarely solve the core problem that they address - and often create new ones, like forcing you to create new folders just to manage new information..."

"No matter how the future turns out, what's clear is this: the eventual solution will act directly on the core problems that Folders have been attempting to solve for the past 30 years."

Read the intro here and the full article here.