The author reflects on how computers and the internet have evolved over time, from their initial purpose being to make life easier through automation and data retrieval, to recognizing that structured data is essential for more advanced applications like search engines, knowledge databases, and AI-driven systems. The author notes that traditional full-text search indexes are not sufficient to provide specific and contextually relevant information, highlighting the importance of structured data in machine consumable formats. They also discuss how this concept has become the foundation of the web, enabling humans to display content in a pleasant manner while enriching it with semantic information, making sense of all the data, and visualizing it in a more approachable way. The author shares examples of how structured data is used in various applications, such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, and Contentful, showcasing its potential for building awesome digital experiences.