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> foretelling a day when a perfect search engine would comprehend all of the world’s information and the meaning behind every user query There. That line. Th
by wheels 17y ago
> foretelling a day when a perfect search engine would comprehend all of the world’s information and the meaning behind every user query
There.
That line.
That's why Google will eventually be dethroned.
Google sees the world through the lens of search -- through the lens of querying. With a little adjusting you could massage the above into Microsoft's strategy in a different era.
It's not entirely clear what it will be, but someday we're not going to access all of the world's information starting with short query strings that we type into a search bar. When that happens, Google's worldview won't be able to make the jump, just like Microsoft and IBM did not in the past. They're a search company.
- mrshoe 17y agoI think this remains to be seen. Since we don't know what the Next Big Thing will be, we can't say that Google will be unable to see it. Right now Google is a search company. If history is any indicator, they will behave just like their predecessors and remain a search company even when the rest of the world has moved on from search. However, there is always the chance that Google will defy the odds and transform themselves as their users transform. As long as they keep a close eye on what people need, instead of on what their search engine needs, they still have a chance.
- wheels 17y agoIt's sufficient to say at some point there will be a next big thing that Google doesn't see. To assume otherwise would be to assume that Google has some special position that's unprecedented in the history of corporations.
- joe_the_user 17y agoUh, I don't know whether Google will continue to be successful or not. One good bet, though, is that people not want to get stuff using a more verbose interface. So if you can think of a way to get the information they want to people using fewer keystrokes than or less effort than they use now with a Google search, you'll have the next big thing.
- billswift 17y agoGoogle will be dethroned only by superior search or by a combination of search and inference from the search. In fact, Google or its replacement is the most likely contender for the originator of the first true GAI. Jonathan Baron, in "Thinking and Deciding", views nearly all thinking, decision making, creative, and other mental processes as variations on a combination of search and inference. I haven't finished the book, but in what I have read so far he makes a pretty good case.
- anamax 17y ago> Google will be dethroned only by superior search or by a combination of search and inference from the search. Google can also be dethroned if someone else figures out how to do search outside the the search box. Search and inference may be fundamental, but the search box is not.
- billswift 17y agoThat's definitely one way to a better search. Or maybe keep a sidebar of links to further information about terms (in the beginning maybe just to links rather than terms) in the current page, that is automatically searching and linking to further info so they are already available if the person wants them.
- patio11 17y agoThey're a search company. They're an advertising company, which happens to own a search engine. (30% of their revenues come from advertising on sites not owned by Google. By way of comparison, that is ten times what Google makes from every revenue source other than advertising. See their 2008 Annual Report if you don't trust my math.)
- wheels 17y agoAdvertising is their revenue model. Dogmatically, Google is a search company. The comparison would be like calling Microsoft an Office Suite company. Sure, that's where a load of their revenue comes from, but it's not what the company is about. Google's positing as an advertising company is a consequence of them being a search company -- just like NBC's position as an advertising company is a result of them being a media company.
- Eliezer 17y ago"Google is an Artificial Intelligence company. They just don't advertise the fact."
- zkz 17y agoSource?
- Eliezer 17y agoI don't know.
- joe_the_user 17y agoIt's like porn! You might not be able to define intelligence but you know it when you see it. Noam Chomsky points out we know English automatically, not through having been taught rules. Similarly, I don't know have any references and artificial intelligence nor do I know exactly how does their search system works (well, I know page rank but I know they've done lots of work beyond it). But I can tell they're semi-intelligent by experiencing the semi-intelligence of their searching system. So they are an artificial intelligence company whether they say it or not, whether they know it or not, simply by the fact that what they create operates semi-intelligently to me.
- sachinag 17y agoIsn't Wolfram|Alpha the first step along the way here?
- ananthrk 17y ago...but someday we're not going to access all of the world's information starting with short query strings that we type into a search bar Very well put. Also, wondering why no is mentioning SemanticWeb. Is this already written off as a non-starter?