The phenomenon previously known as ‘Information explosion’ which originally refers to the outcome of scientific and technological innovations during and immediately after second World War, set off another outburst of information in the area of information sciences. The relatively recent developments of the Internet and the World Wide Web imply that information overload is a recent phenomenon. In fact, the problem of information overload has existed for many years, in recent years the problem has become more widely recognised and experienced.  Scientific, technological, cultural and social innovation are taking place at such a breath-taking pace that no one can really keep up with them.

 
Information overload is a phenomenon which has both objective and subjective causes. Objectively, the amounts of readily available information have increased exponentially in each of the last five decades. There is no indication at present that this rate of increase will not continue to apply in the foreseeable future. Plainly, nothing can (or should) be done about this. It is the logical result of a free information market coupled with technological progress. The subjective component of information overload comes from our having more information available to us than we can readily assimilate; this is a perceived phenomenon. (Carlson, 2003)