5 ms·

first things first...am i the only person who wants to keep saying "kweel" and not "cool"?? in terms of the site itself, i am sort of liking the design / layou

first things first...am i the only person who wants to keep saying "kweel" and not "cool"?? in terms of the site itself, i am sort of liking the design / layout of the search, although like agotterer said, it still needs a lot of work -- from what i can tell, popular search terms have pretty darn good results but unpopular search terms return sub-par results (see his example haha)... in terms of a threat to google?? id have to say its not, at least in this stage of the game, but only time will tell i suppose...

jmtame 18y ago
The team is impressive, they've been involved in AltaVista, Google, and Ebay. And Anna seems pretty confident that Google isn't going to change, although one of the lead Google engineers came to speak at our school last semester and said that they change the algorithms hundreds of times each year. He said it's not uncommon that they tweak it several times a week. Maybe it's not going through drastic changes, and maybe it doesn't look like a Yahoo portal, but they do continue to improve their algorithms. It's really cool to see someone branching off and trying something like search, and I actually support Patterson's efforts. But there is a lot more to Google than just their search algorithm technology. They're running with the momentum of the brand, not to mention the massive collection of apps that people loyally follow. Can you build a better search algorithm than Google that runs faster, with fewer computers, and containing more indeces? Possibly. I happen to know a lot of people who can cook a better cheeseburger than McDonald's, but that doesn't really get you "all the way." Google has criticisms, such as the search logging, which could be used for leverage and could make for easy user acquisitions. However, when you have HappyCamper1 who is (UsingGoogleSearch && UsingGmail), they'll most likely need a better reason to switch search engines because they're already using an e-mail service by the same company. The important thing is that she gets into this space and attacks it vigorously. No king rules forever. May the best win.
- gaius 18y ago
  Tweaking the coefficients is not the same thing as changing the algorithm. Google is no more immune from the Innovator's Dilemma than Microsoft is/was.
- iamelgringo 18y ago
  They don't have to beat Google, they just have to be good enough to get picked up by Microsoft.
dhotson 18y ago
I personally found the search results page a tad confusing. Having the results in a grid layout, my first impression was that they were all ads! .. also, how do I know which result is #1 ? Top left? Middle?
- prakash 18y ago
  why does it matter which result is #1 if you can find what you are looking for on the first page in the first row or first column?
  - dhotson 18y ago
    Well one of the things about Google that I really like is that they really make a lot of effort to make sure that the #1 result is the page you actually want. It's part of the whole 'Feeling Lucky' thing. I'd rather not have to read through the entire search results page to figure out which one is the most relevant.. that's the search engine's job! In other words, don't make me think. :)
    - prakash 18y ago
      How much do you think: input the right keywords, get results in the top 1,2,3, has to do with the feedback system of using google over the past few years? I agree on the don't make me think part.
      - dhotson 18y ago
        You could be right, perhaps I've been using Google so much that I've become accustomed to it. But I still think that all search engines should make a lot of effort to ensure that the #1 result is the best result. I'd rather spend less time looking through search results if possible.
  - lacker 18y ago
    because you have to look somewhere first. #1 is whatever is the closest to the upper left corner.
jimbokun 18y ago
"i am sort of liking the design / layout of the search" Did it strike anyone else that this is one of the ideas that Y-combinator said it would like to fund? (beating Google at design in the search space)

jmtame 18y ago

The team is impressive, they've been involved in AltaVista, Google, and Ebay. And Anna seems pretty confident that Google isn't going to change, although one of the lead Google engineers came to speak at our school last semester and said that they change the algorithms hundreds of times each year. He said it's not uncommon that they tweak it several times a week. Maybe it's not going through drastic changes, and maybe it doesn't look like a Yahoo portal, but they do continue to improve their algorithms. It's really cool to see someone branching off and trying something like search, and I actually support Patterson's efforts. But there is a lot more to Google than just their search algorithm technology. They're running with the momentum of the brand, not to mention the massive collection of apps that people loyally follow. Can you build a better search algorithm than Google that runs faster, with fewer computers, and containing more indeces? Possibly. I happen to know a lot of people who can cook a better cheeseburger than McDonald's, but that doesn't really get you "all the way." Google has criticisms, such as the search logging, which could be used for leverage and could make for easy user acquisitions. However, when you have HappyCamper1 who is (UsingGoogleSearch && UsingGmail), they'll most likely need a better reason to switch search engines because they're already using an e-mail service by the same company. The important thing is that she gets into this space and attacks it vigorously. No king rules forever. May the best win.

gaius 18y ago
Tweaking the coefficients is not the same thing as changing the algorithm. Google is no more immune from the Innovator's Dilemma than Microsoft is/was.
iamelgringo 18y ago
They don't have to beat Google, they just have to be good enough to get picked up by Microsoft.

dhotson 18y ago

I personally found the search results page a tad confusing. Having the results in a grid layout, my first impression was that they were all ads! .. also, how do I know which result is #1 ? Top left? Middle?

prakash 18y ago
why does it matter which result is #1 if you can find what you are looking for on the first page in the first row or first column?
- dhotson 18y ago
  Well one of the things about Google that I really like is that they really make a lot of effort to make sure that the #1 result is the page you actually want. It's part of the whole 'Feeling Lucky' thing. I'd rather not have to read through the entire search results page to figure out which one is the most relevant.. that's the search engine's job! In other words, don't make me think. :)
  - prakash 18y ago
    How much do you think: input the right keywords, get results in the top 1,2,3, has to do with the feedback system of using google over the past few years? I agree on the don't make me think part.
    - dhotson 18y ago
      You could be right, perhaps I've been using Google so much that I've become accustomed to it. But I still think that all search engines should make a lot of effort to ensure that the #1 result is the best result. I'd rather spend less time looking through search results if possible.
- lacker 18y ago
  because you have to look somewhere first. #1 is whatever is the closest to the upper left corner.

jimbokun 18y ago

"i am sort of liking the design / layout of the search" Did it strike anyone else that this is one of the ideas that Y-combinator said it would like to fund? (beating Google at design in the search space)