What's Next For Google? 213
j_heisenberg writes "Technology Review has a nice story about the coming MS-Google showdown. I like especially the data comparison for different media on page 2 concerning data content."
"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." - H.L. Mencken
King (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:King (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:King (Score:4, Interesting)
The url is [smalltown]alumni.com, where [smalltown] is a unique name for a town. The title of the document is "[Small Town] Alumni", and the first H1 tag is "Welcome to the [Small Town] Alumni Website". Despite this, if you enter Small Town Alumni in Google (without quotes), my site comes up 7th. With quotes, my site is still 3rd. The one and only site that links to mine is listed first in the search results, and that site happens to be the school districts website. The other 5 that are before me are a link to reunion.com, a cache of the school districts websitesite, and a couple news sites related to schools.
All of those sites only have the [Small Town] text in their site, with the exception of the school districts site, who's link text is "[Small Town] Alumni".
For comparison, entering [Small Town] Alumni into Yahoo, with or without quotes, lists my site first.
Re:King (Score:3, Informative)
Try this Google search [google.co.uk] for my brother's band (see sig)
It's taken quite some time and the placing of links on as many relevant sites as possible to achieve second ranking. The problem is that all the 'Independent Music' sites that mention Ahymsa have much more 'Google Juice' viz, they are linked to by many more other sites/pages than the Ahymsa [slashdot.org] site
Re:King (Score:2)
Re:King (Score:2)
Re:Google is Doomed: Good Riddance (Score:2)
I could troll the same and tell you that Microsoft is the "official" provider of spying-software used by the chinese government. This doesn't seems to disturb you...
As for your representative who said that the company prefers Americans, that's the most stupid statement ever heard, because if you prefer Americans: STAY INSIDE THE USA! Don't try to go outside...
What's next you ask? (Score:3, Funny)
AHHH!!!!!
Re:What's next you ask? (Score:5, Funny)
"Same thing we always do, Larry
Re:What's next you ask? (Score:2)
Re:What's next you ask? (Score:2)
Logo/symbol search. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Logo/symbol search. (Score:1, Offtopic)
And then I saw your user id...
Re:Logo/symbol search. (Score:1)
Google is more than a search engine... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2, Insightful)
There hasn't been any innovation at Google in a long time.
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:3, Insightful)
so it is just natural that you have more results
but there is no search engine not affected by this
what i really would like is faster updating of the results
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:1)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
but what about some serverside plugin on the webserver getting google info about any new content??
maybe even a program that you can run on your client after a you made a change to your site / blog / whatever??
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
What if they offered it to only uber-popular sites. In the same way google's web ads will advertise for themselves on sites that get more than X hits a month(/. is one of them), That criteria could be used to flag sites that get updated. (/. Time, CNN, etc).
Updating and improving their spider is a given. I think they really just
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
I have to strongly disagree.
Have you tried www.froogle.com ?
How about the google image search?
They've always got something big going on at google!
I can't wait to see their next new big thing.
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
My main gripe is the time taken for a link to be added. I submitted a client of mine 6 weeks ago, and there's been no sign of them in the results since. Quite frustrating!
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
Sorry I don't buy into all the Google hype and see it for what it really is.
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
By the way, I use Gmail.
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
Email and news services....following (Score:2)
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, that new Google Groups is a real great improvement.
Google's best years from a technical & public service point of view are well behind them. Now its time for them to squeeze as much cash as possible.
Re:Google is more than a search engine... (Score:2)
They probably still know to preview before posting, though.
MSN can try, but MSN will fail... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:MSN can try, but MSN will fail... (Score:1, Insightful)
I prediect ... (Score:5, Funny)
Of course I also predicted that DOS would beet windows.... I meen realy, who would want to waste 90% of their machine to just make things look pretty?
Re:I prediect ... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I prediect ... (Score:2)
Re:I prediect ... (Score:2)
Re:I prediect ... (Score:2)
Re:I prediect ... (Score:2)
Instant Messaging (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Instant Messaging (Score:3, Insightful)
Seems like a very bad move for Google.
Re:Instant Messaging (Score:2)
Their desktop tool records all kinds of past information, their email is intended to be kept for a significant amount of time. It only seems natural to have an im client that could record your conversations and be accessible through gmail. Use gmail to handle the contacts and to search past conversations.
Many people already record their im sessions anyways. When you consider the growth of instant message against email, esp in countries like So
Re:Instant Messaging (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Instant Messaging (Score:4, Interesting)
I know I would. Not being tied down to an OS or hardware architecture would be a bonus as well.
Re:Instant Messaging (Score:2)
Re:Instant Messaging (Score:2)
Plus. In the same way iChat is an official AIM-compatible client, Gtalk(or whatever) would be as well. Along with Jabber support. It would also be able to do a corporate intranet-only chat... And somehow integrate with Google's corporate appliance search server.
Re:Instant Messaging (Score:1)
If I could store my conversations on Google's servers then I'd be sorted (excuse the pun
Re:Instant Messaging (Score:2)
Google and Yahoo duopoly (Score:3, Insightful)
I used to experiment with different search engines back in the day, From Infoseek, Excite, Yahoo, Webcrawler, HotBot (does this one really count?), etc.
After I stumbled on to Google via some friends at Georgia Tech, never looked back. I try one or two now, on occasion, but can they really say duopoly? Yahoo may have members et al, but for searching, nothing I've tried comes close to Google yet.
Google will get reactive at some point (Score:5, Interesting)
doesn't stop TV adds. (Score:1)
All that 'Google' has to go is attract people to the Internet and away from the TV and radio and attract some of that grass roots advertising revenue.
Re:doesn't stop TV adds. (Score:2)
Re:doesn't stop TV adds. (Score:2)
Re:doesn't stop TV adds. (Score:2)
Re:Google will get reactive at some point (Score:4, Insightful)
Google's whole ad model is built around a simple, devastatingly effective concept: Advertisers only pay if there's a clickthrough. In a recession, when people are buying less overall, the clickthrough rates are likely going to go down.
But -- and this is the big deal -- that will automatically reduce ad expenditures and it will do so in a fairly graceful way. This is a big, big contrast to the agency-driven, big-dollar buys a major advertiser would commit to on a network like Yahoo. Those purchases are much more likely to feel the effects of fast, pannicky spending reductions because the risk they represent is higher in terms of both dollars and questionable rate of return.
Does Google get hurt in a recession? Yes. But I'd argue that they get hurt a lot less -- and with more of a predictable, linear response -- than Yahoo or other competitors.
Re:Google will get reactive at some point (Score:3)
Yeah ... sure (Score:1)
"$1 is big and monopolizes. They don't do free software. I hate them."
"$2 is building applications to compete with $1. I support $2. I will think about $2's free software later."
.
.
(couple of years later)
"$2 has grown bigger and sell/distribute applications. They don't do free software. I get a strange feeling out of it."
.
.
(some more time)
"$2 is big and monopolizes. They don't do free software. I hate them."
Zoogle (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Zoogle (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Zoogle (Score:2)
a9 (Score:2)
Re:a9 (Score:2)
Technically, not a contender currently, but could be if they start developing some algos out there.
Re:a9 (Score:2)
It's the UI, Stupid. (Score:2)
Most of us
Marketing... (Score:2, Interesting)
So, all MSN has to do is get enough people to use it, it does not matter how good it is and Microsoft is very good at that. Then they will get more ad-revenue
GoogleGroups Debacle, A Sign Google Ain't The Same (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:GoogleGroups Debacle, A Sign Google Ain't The S (Score:1)
Google Groups is still there but I had not checked earlier this week : http://groups-beta.google.com/ [google.com]
Weird though it says BETA...hasn't this been out there forever now?
Re:GoogleGroups Debacle, A Sign Google Ain't The S (Score:2)
But someone posted a solution. Just use Google Groups from other English-speaking countries, such as:
http://groups.google.com.au/ [google.com.au]
Investigative services (Score:4, Interesting)
Summary--Google's best moneymaking potential is in the black helicopter arena, where their assets will blow away startups like BayTSP, Cyveillance, and Genuone despite the startups having had the first mover advantage.
Yes, this doesn't square with "Don't be evil." Neither does helping the PRC subjagate its people by assisting with censorship. And a publically traded company, as any Cryptonomicon MBA here can tell you, cannot have the luxury of a conscience.
Re:Investigative services (Score:2)
Google wouldn't dare explicitly move into this area, as it would kill whatever good karma they still have after going public. If they started selling data on who was searching for what, people would stop searching with them and start blocking their robots. It just wouldn't work.
MS vs. Google (Score:5, Insightful)
Google will continue to innovate, developing new features, integrating new capabilities into the developing 'user portal' centered around GMail. They will continue to develope advanced ways to organize, search, and use huge amounts of data.
Microsoft will wait to see what the users gravitate to the most, and will create a nearly identical version of the feature. They will extend it in a few minor ways to integrate more tightly with their operating systems. Since it will be in the OS by default, they will quickly gain a large market share.
On a lesser note, other 'competitors' like Yahoo, will continue to innovate in areas of banner advertising, and flash advertisement integration. They will add new features only after Google releases products that make theirs look primitive by comparison.
The only question my visions have not answered is: How large will Google have to become before slowing their innovation and playing it safe.
Re:MS vs. Google (Score:1)
Re:MS vs. Google (Score:2)
Re:MS vs. Google (Score:2)
That is what I see as the difference between innovators and complacent companies. Google continu
I know what should be next (Score:3, Interesting)
more vs better vs profit (Score:2, Insightful)
So, rather then more info, we need the ever elusive electronic expert (or perhaps, starting in middle school, a class
Re:more vs better vs profit (Score:1)
Re:more vs better vs profit (Score:2)
What some people like to do is Information Browsing and sometimes don't have clear intent or have multiple interests. And sometimes, an
Next step for google (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Next step for google (Score:2, Funny)
For those craving insightful slashdot discussion!! (Score:2)
Don't waste your time reading it....Honest. (Score:2, Interesting)
- Technology means money, cites Microsoft, Cisco, Intel and IBM. (We didn't know that.)
- Those who prevail will have more chance to set the standard for the industry to follow. (This is news to me.)
- Says search will go through email, PDF, and even phone conversations(whatever th
Searching beyond the PC and providing search APIs (Score:4, Interesting)
I am not sure about the former but I do agree with the later. Thinking beyond the PC is too difficult, I think. If a tool can be connected to a computer and data can flow between the tool and the computer, then this tool becomes part of the computer. Mapping MP3 player just turns this player into another harddrive, so I am not sure what the author really meant, besides, we do not have our MP3 players on the web, so it would be a desktop search engine that would have to crawl the devices (like Google's desktop searching tool - bar.) So for now atleast, whatever the author meant by this is covered already.
The search engine APIs is a more interesting subject. I suppose Google's desktop bar could be used by desktop applications for running searches from within, that's first.
Developers already can tap into Google's search API (I tried it myself,) but as the author mentioned, these are limited to a thousand searches a day and to a very small set of utilities.
I wonder if it would be possible for a search engine to provide a set of APIs with much more functionality than a simple search API. Incremental searching, time period based searching, topical searching, who knows what else.
Any ideas what functions could be useful in such an API?
A different story. (Score:2, Interesting)
A web development company has a different view of the future showdown between Microsoft and Google. They "predict" it moving beyond the realm of search engines and into the realm of a total mainstream media takeover.
They call it Epic [halorising.com] Granted, it is a bit over dramatic, but it does make you think. Make sure you give yourself five minutes to view the whole thing.
Google v. Microsoft Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Very interesting article, with many implications.
From a business standpoint, Google will need a lot more resources to compete with MS. Swallowing Yahoo might not be enough. A consortium between Amazon, Google and Yahoo and a number of universities might still not be enough.
Microsoft; "I spit on your meagre $2-12 billion."
Since the point is winning an architecture standards 'war', the context for these standards needs to be defined first -or last as the case may be. Will these standards ultimately be commercial, governmental (international or national), military or none of the above? Microsoft with greater resources has the advantage of being able to hedge more alternatives.
Microsoft's Windows vulnerabilities grafted onto entry into everyday technologies make the 'Y2K' scenarios a year by year (day by day) nightmare. I don't like the idea of a hacker using either Google or MSsearch to gain access to my thermostats or my refrigerator. Or my Slashdot password, either.
If search is to be a $20-30 billion a year business, what will the computer/cellphone/intranet/PDA/various electronic device security business be worth?
To paraphrase Eistein, 'I don't know how this architecture war will be fought, but the next one will be fought with pencil and paper.'
It's interesting... (Score:5, Interesting)
I argued that if it was to survive, Netscape needed to imitate Microsoft's strategy: the creation and control of proprietary industry standards. Serenely, Barksdale explained that Netscape actually invited Microsoft to imitate its products, because they would never catch up. The Internet, he said, rewarded openness and nonproprietary standards.
I suspect the characterization of Netscape is a little starry-eyed, but I can't be the only one who thought, "No, that Netscape executive was right!" His point (someone else can argue about how accurate it is), though, is that rewards for "openness and nonproprietary standards" did not go to Netscape: MS trashed them, and in the business world Netscape lost horribly. We (as in the users of the Internet) may have won, but we won at Netscape's expense.
And then:
In contrast, the losers in these contests have usually made one or more common mistakes. They fail to deliver architectures that cover the entire market, to provide products that work on multiple platforms from multiple companies, to release well-engineered products, or to create barriers against cloning. For example, IBM failed to retain proprietary control over its PC architecture and then, in belatedly attempting to recover it, fatally broke with established industry standards. Apple and Sun restricted their operating systems to their own hardware, alienating other hardware vendors. Netscape declined to create proprietary APIs because it thought Microsoft would never catch up.
IBM's opening of the PC architecture is thought of by geeks as A Good Thing: by letting go, they created the market we have today, even though they didn't benefit from it. TFA says IBM lost market dominance as a result. It's interesting that he doesn't address the question of whether the PC architecture would have taken such hold of the market if it had not been opened up to competitors in the first place...but again, what we see as a win for PC users, he presents as a loss for the people who came up with the PC.
It's also interesting that he doesn't explain the contradiction between failing to "create barriers against cloning", and Apple and Sun's "alienating other vendors" by making their OS only work on their own hardware. He needs to pick a side on this one...
Anyhow, no grand point -- just some things that stuck out for me in TFA.
Re:It's interesting... (Score:2)
No, it says that "in belatedly attempting to recover it, fatally broke with established industry standards", meaning PS/2 and MCA. IBM thought it could close the market again but obviously was wrong about that.
Who knows where IBM would be today if they had just stuck with the standard PC business instead of trying to trap the market with the PS/2?
And, of IBM an
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
"print friendly" link (Score:2)
Re:tnb niggermania.com (Score:1)
Re:tnb niggermania.com (Score:2)
Google: The site in question was nowhere to be found in the first five pages of results.
MSN Beta: The site in question showed up as the first result.
Google did not find the site, while MSN did. I have seen this happen more than once in recent time. MSN's new search is kicking the crap out of Google.
Re:tnb niggermania.com (Score:2)
I wouldn't call that "kicking the crap out of". All MSN did differently was put the two search terms to
Re:tnb niggermania.com (Score:2)
The goal of a search engine is to help people find things. MSN does a better job at finding things than Google does. Add to that the quicker updates, and you've got yourself a search engine that kicks the crap out of Google.
Agreed, GOOG crater inevitable (Score:2)
Re:On my Linux Box (Score:1)
I would speak favorably of MSN search if it would work on my computer, but it has some bugs and keeps craping with some error numbers. So, for me at least, Google desktop search works while MSN doesn't.
Re:Where were these guys... (Score:2)