Week Six: Databases

I had a general understanding of databases before this week's reading, but I now have a much greater appreciation for how much information they are able to store and then access in a second or less. Amazon.com is a perfect example of this. The online retailer sells millions of items from countless different merchants, yet thanks to its database management system it is able to provide results to queries almost immediately after the user presses "enter," and is also able to recommend purchases based on an individual's queries. Very impressive.