首先，它是一个搜索引擎。其次，它包含内容极其丰富，几乎等同于互联网。现在的Google甚至可以替代古人的记忆力。

Research by scientists at Columbia University has found that people are adapting their ability to remember because of the formidable power of search engines such as Google to remember things for them. In short, people no longer always need to know stuff; they just need to know where it can be found.

哥伦比亚大学研究发现，人们的记忆能力在发生改变，因为有着像Google这样的、拥有强大功能的搜索引擎来帮助人们记忆。总之，人们不再需要总是记住所有的东西，只需要知道在哪里能搜索到就行了。

The research, published in Science magazine, involved a series of experiments. In one, participants were given pieces of information to type into a computer. Half were told the computer would retain the information and the other half were told it would be erased.

这项研究结果连同一系列的实验数据发表在《科学》杂志上。在其中一项实验当中，每个实验参与者都拿到一张纸，并将纸上的信息输入到电脑里。告诉其中一半人，电脑会保存输入的信息；而告诉另外一半人，电脑里面的信息会被删除。

Participants "did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statements they had read," the researchers reported. In another experiment, when participants were given information and folder names in which they were stored, they were better at recalling the folder names than the information.

研究人员称，当实验参与者随后能查找回看过的信息的话，他们“不必努力去记住”。在另外一个实验里，实验参与者被告知了信息和分别存放这些信息的文件夹名，他们会更容易记起文件夹的名字。

"The results ... suggest 'where' was prioritised in memory, with the advantage going to 'where' when 'what' was forgotten," the researchers said.

研究人员称，实验结果显示记忆机制会优先记住“信息在哪里”，即使已经忘了“信息是什么”。

Betsy Sparrow, a psychologist who was one of the principal researchers, said that when faced with difficult questions, people are "primed to think about computers".

主要的研究人员之一、心理学家Betsy Sparrow说道，当遇到困难问题的时候，人们首先会想到用电脑。

As a result, we have lower rates of recall of the information itself, and enhanced recall of where and how to access it.

结果，我们降低了对信息本身的记忆能力，而加强了对“信息在哪里”和“怎么得到信息”的回忆能力。

Sparrow concludes that the internet has become "an external memory source that we can access at any time" – an arena where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.

Sparrow称，互联网已经变成“一个能随时获取信息的外部记忆资源”--- 一个公共的体外信息存储广场。

"These studies suggest that people share information easily because they rapidly think of computers when they find they need knowledge," Sparrow said.

Sparrow还说，“这些研究显示，人们能很容易地共享信息，因为当需要资讯的时候人们立刻想到打开电脑。”

“就像我们通过沟通，知道了家里或办公室里每个人分别知道些什么一样，我们也在研究电脑（互联网）里有什么信息，以及在适当的时候记住电脑（互联网）的哪里有我们需要的信息。我们越来越离不开电脑这个工具了。”

Sparrow said people were becoming dependent on their gadgets in the same way that they were dependent on friends and colleagues for shared memory.

Sparrow说，人们已经变得依赖电脑机器，就像以前有什么记不住就问朋友和同事那样。

"The experience of losing our internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend. We must remain plugged in to know what Google knows."

“断网的体验越来越像失去了一个朋友的感觉一样。我们必须要继续使用这个外部记忆器，去了解Google还知道些什么~”