An aeon ago, we all searched the Web with Yahoo, Excite, Altavista and others. The results, helpful at first, deteriorated over time. If a user searched for, say, “Viagra”, search engines decided that the best results were pages that contained the word “Viagra” as many times as possible. Naturally, spammers created pages stuffed with fake keywords to lure in the innocent. And results became increasingly crowded with unwanted stuff.
Along came Google with a revolutionary thought: Relevance, or links from other Web sites as an indicator of importance. So if the most number of pages on the Internet pointed to Pfizer’s (Viagra’s manufacturer) site, that was probably the most authoritative one. Google called its algorithm “PageRank”. Its results were so good that its market share grew exponentially year after year. Today, seven out of ten searches are via Google. Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary list “googling” as a verb.
(This story appears in the 03 July, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
So you still believe that Google is about search engine? Within 6-7 years, don't be surprised when Google tells you - " I know you better than you know yourself, Mr. Rohin Dharmakumar". I guess, Yauba is missing that point too - an analogy - "if people could, say visit your house and look around and max get to drink some water (which is assumed to be coming to your house at no cost); even then wouldn't you want to know who visited your house?" Not their name and address but lets say a picture of theirs - whom you do not recognize anyway? This is what Google is doing - maintaining traces. But it will soon get into matching 'face' and the 'footprint'. And that is the only lucrative business-model in that space.
on Sep 2, 2010Yauba is an Indian search engine, touted as a Google killer, which is also being talked about. I read in Mint that it allows browsers to seek anonymity. I like it best, because it also throws up pdf files, social networking links etc.<br /> Go here for the Mint article:<br /> http://www.livemint.com/2009/04/30005402/8216Googlekiller8217-on.html
on Jun 28, 2009