The link to the paper seems to be dead, but I'm interested in reading more.

Personally, I have a poor memory and have made use of what the post calls "transactive memory" (great to have such a perfect name for it) to compensate for years. I've never felt like I was more reliant on Google than on, say, my mother or my friends.

But if you talk about the acquisition of knowledge rather than retention, Google is definitely a primary tool I'm very reliant on. There aren't many topics anymore that I started learning about by asking a friend or co-worker rather than gathering sources from Google first.