What are the advantages of the use of computers for information processing?

Computers can process enormous amounts of information faster, cheaper, and more reliably than humans. They are also capable of simultaneously analyzing and comparing the data being catalogued, making information more easily distributable and accessible to system users. Computer systems are also more adept at bridging language and cultural barriers among actual and potential users, as well as manipulating complex data sets.
Take Amazon.com, for example, which is the world’s largest online retailer. Whether one lives in Indiana or Istanbul, access to the site is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, as are its vast array of products. While one peruses the many items offered on the site, a computer program is comparing those to similar items that other customers have either viewed or purchased, and scrollable lists of these appear beneath the item being viewed, along with site-sponsored product promotions. In other words, the program is able to instantaneously compare the browsing and buying habits of its customers on a global scale, thereby providing invaluable information to its marketing and purchasing teams. Using such a program to predict further buying trends might also help the company increase future revenues in a cost-effective manner, whereas employing national and international teams of human researchers to accomplish the same task would take much longer and cost much more money.