6 ms·

It would be great if Google changes their policies and acts responsibly from here on out, but whether they do or not, I think we would all be better off in the

by elihu 9y ago

It would be great if Google changes their policies and acts responsibly from here on out, but whether they do or not, I think we would all be better off in the long run if there were more competing services. Maybe it's time for a new search engine? (Or a new video sharing site, or a new email service, or a new online ad delivery system, or a new news aggregator, or a new cell phone operating system vendor, or a new Internet business model that isn't dependent on advertising revenue...) Google started at a time when most people didn't think we need a new search engine, and it seems to have worked well for them. Maybe it's that time again. I'm not sure when exactly the PageRank patent expires (people seem to be saying 2017 or 2018), but it will be soon and that should open up some interesting possibilities.

unityByFreedom 9y ago
> I'm not sure when exactly the PageRank patent expires (people seem to be saying 2017 or 2018), but it will be soon and that should open up some interesting possibilities. You could use it right now. In fact, many do. Google doesn't sue companies for using PageRank or much of their published research. Much more interesting things have come out since then like BigTable (led to Hadoop + NoSQL databases) and Word2Vec (better semantic analysis + search). These are in use all over industry. ITT people who don't understand the contributions Google has made. If you're wondering why there aren't competitors, you're not looking far enough. Baidu competes with Google in China.
- elihu 9y ago
  Patents are a pretty big threat to have hanging over your company -- Google might not sue other companies for using it now, but they could in the future. At least, until the patent expires. I realize Google has created more than PageRank, but PageRank is pretty fundamental technology. If you can't use it for legal reasons, that's a big impediment. I don't know how Bing gets around it. I've never tried using Baidu, but if my main concern is that I don't want a search engine censoring the Internet, then using Baidu is at least as problematic as using Google.
  - unityByFreedom 9y ago
    > Google might not sue other companies for using it now, but they could in the future. At least, until the patent expires Google's long term strategy is to not do this. So for this to happen they'd have to end up with a CEO who wants to make a huge pivot. > I realize Google has created more than PageRank, but PageRank is pretty fundamental technology. If you can't use it for legal reasons, that's a big impediment. I don't know how Bing gets around it. Maybe because it's not fundamental at all. It's hardly used anymore. Many search engines are built without PageRank. You could build one. I suggest reading about PageRank before claiming it is fundamental to search. > I've never tried using Baidu, but if my main concern is that I don't want a search engine censoring the Internet, then using Baidu is at least as problematic as using Google. Then use duck duck go.
    - elihu 9y ago
      Do you have an example of a non-pagerank based page ranking algorithm that I should look at? Duck duck go isn't an independent search engine, it's a layer on top of Bing. That solves the privacy issue, but not the censorship issue, if you're worried about Microsoft censoring content. (At least we have two major search engines and not one.)
      - unityByFreedom 9y ago
        I suggest reading about search engine technology as a field of study. That would give an overview of the various approaches and their strengths. If you're worried that Bing is also censorship, then use Yahoo, or Baidu. They all order results slightly differently. You could argue each censorship til the cows come home. I don't see the point. You could say I'm censoring you right now by not telling you everything I know. Is there something specific you feel all the search engines are censoring? Or you just suspect they are?

by elihu 9y ago

unityByFreedom 9y ago

> I'm not sure when exactly the PageRank patent expires (people seem to be saying 2017 or 2018), but it will be soon and that should open up some interesting possibilities. You could use it right now. In fact, many do. Google doesn't sue companies for using PageRank or much of their published research. Much more interesting things have come out since then like BigTable (led to Hadoop + NoSQL databases) and Word2Vec (better semantic analysis + search). These are in use all over industry. ITT people who don't understand the contributions Google has made. If you're wondering why there aren't competitors, you're not looking far enough. Baidu competes with Google in China.

elihu 9y ago
Patents are a pretty big threat to have hanging over your company -- Google might not sue other companies for using it now, but they could in the future. At least, until the patent expires. I realize Google has created more than PageRank, but PageRank is pretty fundamental technology. If you can't use it for legal reasons, that's a big impediment. I don't know how Bing gets around it. I've never tried using Baidu, but if my main concern is that I don't want a search engine censoring the Internet, then using Baidu is at least as problematic as using Google.
- unityByFreedom 9y ago
  > Google might not sue other companies for using it now, but they could in the future. At least, until the patent expires Google's long term strategy is to not do this. So for this to happen they'd have to end up with a CEO who wants to make a huge pivot. > I realize Google has created more than PageRank, but PageRank is pretty fundamental technology. If you can't use it for legal reasons, that's a big impediment. I don't know how Bing gets around it. Maybe because it's not fundamental at all. It's hardly used anymore. Many search engines are built without PageRank. You could build one. I suggest reading about PageRank before claiming it is fundamental to search. > I've never tried using Baidu, but if my main concern is that I don't want a search engine censoring the Internet, then using Baidu is at least as problematic as using Google. Then use duck duck go.
  - elihu 9y ago
    Do you have an example of a non-pagerank based page ranking algorithm that I should look at? Duck duck go isn't an independent search engine, it's a layer on top of Bing. That solves the privacy issue, but not the censorship issue, if you're worried about Microsoft censoring content. (At least we have two major search engines and not one.)
    - unityByFreedom 9y ago
      I suggest reading about search engine technology as a field of study. That would give an overview of the various approaches and their strengths. If you're worried that Bing is also censorship, then use Yahoo, or Baidu. They all order results slightly differently. You could argue each censorship til the cows come home. I don't see the point. You could say I'm censoring you right now by not telling you everything I know. Is there something specific you feel all the search engines are censoring? Or you just suspect they are?