4 ms·

Another look under the hood of search

23 points by bjonathan 15y ago

seunghomattyang 15y ago
Am I the only one who really likes behind-the-scenes videos? Sometimes I enjoy them more than the actual products/movies. Anyhow, it's great that Google is making constant improvements to its search but lately, I feel like the results aren't as good as they used to be because of SEO spam and people gaming the algorithm solely for profit.
wgx 15y ago
What surprised me was the human element, I'd expected it to be more data-driven with less human debate.
- mckoss 15y ago
  I agree. Why are do so many people need to weigh in on what the "numbers" must be telling them. The process seems way more subjective than analytical.
ilv 15y ago
I was expecting Sanjay Gupta to pop in!
gojomo 15y ago
Surprised to see that what appears to be the "feature launch committee" has about 30 people in the room... and another 15 or so patched in by video. (Perhaps most are just 'flies on the wall' to learn?)
- mckoss 15y ago
  This was pretty typical at Microsoft too. Many groups (Windows, Office, Exchange, etc) had a leadership group hold a regular "war room" type meeting at which major decisions were made. From 10 to 30 participants was common at these (usually weekly) meetings. It's a sign of bureaucracy, not trusting important decisions to individual contributors, and an ass-covering vehicle to remove blame when mistakes are made. Some of it reflects a needed amount of "care" - but it can easily lead to bad organizational dynamics.
- rachelbythebay 15y ago
  I think that makes it a banned meeting if it has more than 7 people in it. Really.
mckoss 15y ago
What's the spin here? Google is trying to project: - Search is a hard, interesting problem - and we have really smart people working on it (come work with us). - Search is a competitive business (don't regulate us). - We use a scientific process (don't investigate our practices as a potential conflict of interest). The video is interesting. But one thing NOT addressed is how much is the search experience improving? Yes, they've made "500 changes" to the algorithm last year. By what measure is search quality going up (or down)? I sense an improvement over the last 6 months (seeing less low quality or spam links) - but I'd like to see this quantified.

23 points by bjonathan 15y ago

Am I the only one who really likes behind-the-scenes videos? Sometimes I enjoy them more than the actual products/movies. Anyhow, it's great that Google is making constant improvements to its search but lately, I feel like the results aren't as good as they used to be because of SEO spam and people gaming the algorithm solely for profit.

wgx 15y ago

What surprised me was the human element, I'd expected it to be more data-driven with less human debate.

mckoss 15y ago
I agree. Why are do so many people need to weigh in on what the "numbers" must be telling them. The process seems way more subjective than analytical.

ilv 15y ago

I was expecting Sanjay Gupta to pop in!

gojomo 15y ago

Surprised to see that what appears to be the "feature launch committee" has about 30 people in the room... and another 15 or so patched in by video. (Perhaps most are just 'flies on the wall' to learn?)

mckoss 15y ago
This was pretty typical at Microsoft too. Many groups (Windows, Office, Exchange, etc) had a leadership group hold a regular "war room" type meeting at which major decisions were made. From 10 to 30 participants was common at these (usually weekly) meetings. It's a sign of bureaucracy, not trusting important decisions to individual contributors, and an ass-covering vehicle to remove blame when mistakes are made. Some of it reflects a needed amount of "care" - but it can easily lead to bad organizational dynamics.
rachelbythebay 15y ago
I think that makes it a banned meeting if it has more than 7 people in it. Really.

mckoss 15y ago

What's the spin here? Google is trying to project: - Search is a hard, interesting problem - and we have really smart people working on it (come work with us). - Search is a competitive business (don't regulate us). - We use a scientific process (don't investigate our practices as a potential conflict of interest). The video is interesting. But one thing NOT addressed is how much is the search experience improving? Yes, they've made "500 changes" to the algorithm last year. By what measure is search quality going up (or down)? I sense an improvement over the last 6 months (seeing less low quality or spam links) - but I'd like to see this quantified.