Thesis: We are leaving the Information Age and entering the Recommendation Age. In the past, it was difficult to gather sufficient information to make decisions, and we relied on recommendations to guide us through this lack of knowledge, based on others' prior experience. Today we have too much information – which, ironically, has made recommendations even more valuable. Now, we don't have enough time to sort through all the information, or we need higher levels of understanding to make sense of the information. So recommendations act as shortcuts through the information mass, getting us to the right, or "right enough," answer.

There is a small wine shop near me which specializes in French wines from wineries that no one (well, not me) has heard of. Luckily, the owner knows the grapes, he knows the soil, and – most importantly – he knows what tastes good. For me, it means that, in business parlance, I can safely outsource my wine knowledge to him, freeing up precious time and braincells.

Let's say I wanted to bring that knowledge in-house, that is, into my brain instead of relying on his. The tools are plentiful to do this: there are endless websites, of course, and there are countless books and magazines that I can buy. Eventually, I could gain enough knowledge to comfortably make my own decisions in the wine shop. But frankly, I just don't have the time or the inclination; there are just too many things clamoring for my 24 hours a day. It's easier to just listen to the proprietor's recommendations, nod knowingly with eyebrows arched and lips pursed, and pay up.

This anecdote is a microcosm of a larger shift that's going on in our connected society: we are leaving the Information Age and entering the Recommendation Age. Today information is ridiculously easy to get; you practically trip over it on the street. Information gathering is no longer the issue – making smart decisions based on the information is now the trick.

Let's take my wine shopping as an example. In the old days, say five years ago, it was a lot harder to find in-depth information on wines, especially recently-released ones. My knowledge would have been limited to whatever was reviewed in magazines – a tiny sampling. Books covered more breadth, but were not up to date. So I would have relied on recommendations from trusted sources – knowledgeable friends or a good shop proprietor. I needed the recommendations because there was a lack of information.