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The idea that a single company can perfect search - even one employing a significant percentage of the world's PhDs - is absurd. However, Google will likely co

The idea that a single company can perfect search - even one employing a significant percentage of the world's PhDs - is absurd. However, Google will likely continue to dominate search even in the face of superior alternatives because of their position in the marketplace and in the minds of consumers, just as Microsoft continues to dominate the OS space long after the introduction of viable free alternatives. This is why, if you have ever tried to pitch a search startup to VC's, you have almost certainly received a less-than-polite "no" along with your coconut water. These tools will be interesting to use for a handful of techies like myself, but Google will remain safely ensconced in its fortress of cash for at least the next several decades regardless of this and whatever else comes along that may enable the creation of superior search engines.

afarrell 12y ago
> long after the introduction of viable free alternatives Maybe Ubuntu (or mint?) has learned UX design and found a way to sand down all its' rough edges in the 3 years since I switched to OSX, but I doubt it. Running linux requires the time and patience of a knowledge person. Linux is far too expensive for most people.
- learc83 12y ago
  Elementary OS [1] attempts to do that with a design first philosophy. However, it was still too much of a hassle to get it working with 3 monitors last time I tried it. I've used various linux distros for years, and there's always something that doesn't work right. Whether it's the speakers not turning off when I plug my headphones in through my thinkpad dock in Arch, or monitor position settings changing every time I reboot my desktop in Elementary OS, the lack of polish really shows. I understand why this happens, and I don't fault the people making on the various distros. I've even dove in and fixed a few problems myself. But nevertheless, it remains a problem, so for now I've just decided on windows for day to day use with a VM running linux when I need it. [1] http://elementary.io/ http://elementary.io/
- beagle3 12y ago
  While OSX is probably easier to use still, I've been using Ubuntu on the desktop since 2005, and every time I have to do something on Win8 I cry in desparation. Win7 was frustrating, but workable. Win8.1 is a horrible mess, as was Win8 before it; The Metro/Old dichotomy is intellectually painful, distracting, and damaging to any sane workflow.
- pekk 12y ago
  If you ever have to service or install Windows (and everyone has to eventually) then that is even harder because it's not primarily designed to be worked with at that level. Windows rests on a cushion of someone else providing IT support. Why should Linux perform usability miracles no other OS does?
  - dogma1138 12y ago
    How many times you had issues running software on Windows compared to Linux? Even with "consumer friendly" distro's like Ubuntu compatibility is an issue and you can easily screw up co-hosted software and even the entire OS due to the current dependency mess which plagues the F/OSS world especially on Linux. Back in the 90's and maybe maybe early 2000's you would get silly error messages like .dll XYZ or cannot find ZYX .ocx on Windows but today? I don't think so, other things like configuring network sharing, backup, more advanced network setups are still considerably much easier on Windows than Linux. And it's not just the UI both Gnome and KDE have offered pretty much 95% coverage of anything you can configure on Linux (core service only ofc) in the UI but their UI is still sucky. I haven't used Windows server since 2003 jumped into 2012 and could find everything and any new features were self explanatory, trying to make OS changes in Gnome, meh i rather just find the config file and edit it manually. Linux needs to get It's shit together, and hopefully one day it will, because ATM even with all the nice and user friendly package managers at best half of your software will come in archives which a basic consumer user doesn't know what to do with (nor should they) and at worst comes completely uncompiled forcing you to /MAKE it on your own machine hoping you got all the dependencies and the header files you need. And for the software you can get from your distro's "app store" you still holding your fingers hoping one application wont cause all of your other ones to brain fart because the dependencies it uses are of a slightly newer or older version. I've worked for a Company that tried to switch their desktops to Linux, and I've heard plenty of stories of people who encountered similar cases, it just never bloody works just like everything else and then they panic hire an entire new IT department who still doesn't manages to get everything working properly for everyone and scarps the entire project 6-8 months down the Line losing probably several orders of magnitude more than they would ever have gained from reducing licensing costs across their desktops.
Retric 12y ago
I strongly disagree. Market dominance is almost meaningless in search, first off everyone is trying to game your system so being ranked #2 is actually a large advantage from a quality standpoint. Second, switching costs are next to nothing, just look at all the people using duck duck go despite a vastly smaller team.
- downandout 12y ago
  Duck Duck Go actually proves my point. It is arguably the most successful of the alternative search engines. Yet, if you stopped 100 average people on any street in the US and asked them, I'm guessing that less than 3 of them will know what Duck Duck Go is. Ask them what Google is, and you'll get at least 99% accuracy.
  - Retric 12y ago
    You completely miss the point people using Duck Duck go can use g! and do a Google search. https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html More importantly Duck Duck Go is actually considered worse than Google even by many people that use Duck Duck Go so this is considered a significant feature. Granted, it's debatable how much worse but Bing / Duck Duck go are viewed as competitive search engines not better search engines. Plenty of people are doing regular head to head comparisons with people using different search engines for the same query if they can't find it on one they use the other. After a while the 'better' engine generally becomes their dealt. Windows on the other hand has a lot of inertia due to third part integration. For example there is a much smaller selection of games on OS X than windows which creates a feedback loop. There is no way OS X could hit 50% market share in 3 years let alone a brand new OS starting from scratch, but search has seen massive swings in market share fairly recently. PS: The g! feature is also great for fine tuning their search engine. Providing a listing of every pain point when people gave up.
    - TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
      DDG definitely has sore spots. But the ! shortcuts more than make up for it.

afarrell 12y ago

> long after the introduction of viable free alternatives Maybe Ubuntu (or mint?) has learned UX design and found a way to sand down all its' rough edges in the 3 years since I switched to OSX, but I doubt it. Running linux requires the time and patience of a knowledge person. Linux is far too expensive for most people.

learc83 12y ago
Elementary OS [1] attempts to do that with a design first philosophy. However, it was still too much of a hassle to get it working with 3 monitors last time I tried it. I've used various linux distros for years, and there's always something that doesn't work right. Whether it's the speakers not turning off when I plug my headphones in through my thinkpad dock in Arch, or monitor position settings changing every time I reboot my desktop in Elementary OS, the lack of polish really shows. I understand why this happens, and I don't fault the people making on the various distros. I've even dove in and fixed a few problems myself. But nevertheless, it remains a problem, so for now I've just decided on windows for day to day use with a VM running linux when I need it. [1] http://elementary.io/ http://elementary.io/
beagle3 12y ago
While OSX is probably easier to use still, I've been using Ubuntu on the desktop since 2005, and every time I have to do something on Win8 I cry in desparation. Win7 was frustrating, but workable. Win8.1 is a horrible mess, as was Win8 before it; The Metro/Old dichotomy is intellectually painful, distracting, and damaging to any sane workflow.
pekk 12y ago
If you ever have to service or install Windows (and everyone has to eventually) then that is even harder because it's not primarily designed to be worked with at that level. Windows rests on a cushion of someone else providing IT support. Why should Linux perform usability miracles no other OS does?
- dogma1138 12y ago
  How many times you had issues running software on Windows compared to Linux? Even with "consumer friendly" distro's like Ubuntu compatibility is an issue and you can easily screw up co-hosted software and even the entire OS due to the current dependency mess which plagues the F/OSS world especially on Linux. Back in the 90's and maybe maybe early 2000's you would get silly error messages like .dll XYZ or cannot find ZYX .ocx on Windows but today? I don't think so, other things like configuring network sharing, backup, more advanced network setups are still considerably much easier on Windows than Linux. And it's not just the UI both Gnome and KDE have offered pretty much 95% coverage of anything you can configure on Linux (core service only ofc) in the UI but their UI is still sucky. I haven't used Windows server since 2003 jumped into 2012 and could find everything and any new features were self explanatory, trying to make OS changes in Gnome, meh i rather just find the config file and edit it manually. Linux needs to get It's shit together, and hopefully one day it will, because ATM even with all the nice and user friendly package managers at best half of your software will come in archives which a basic consumer user doesn't know what to do with (nor should they) and at worst comes completely uncompiled forcing you to /MAKE it on your own machine hoping you got all the dependencies and the header files you need. And for the software you can get from your distro's "app store" you still holding your fingers hoping one application wont cause all of your other ones to brain fart because the dependencies it uses are of a slightly newer or older version. I've worked for a Company that tried to switch their desktops to Linux, and I've heard plenty of stories of people who encountered similar cases, it just never bloody works just like everything else and then they panic hire an entire new IT department who still doesn't manages to get everything working properly for everyone and scarps the entire project 6-8 months down the Line losing probably several orders of magnitude more than they would ever have gained from reducing licensing costs across their desktops.

Retric 12y ago

I strongly disagree. Market dominance is almost meaningless in search, first off everyone is trying to game your system so being ranked #2 is actually a large advantage from a quality standpoint. Second, switching costs are next to nothing, just look at all the people using duck duck go despite a vastly smaller team.

downandout 12y ago
Duck Duck Go actually proves my point. It is arguably the most successful of the alternative search engines. Yet, if you stopped 100 average people on any street in the US and asked them, I'm guessing that less than 3 of them will know what Duck Duck Go is. Ask them what Google is, and you'll get at least 99% accuracy.
- Retric 12y ago
  You completely miss the point people using Duck Duck go can use g! and do a Google search. https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html More importantly Duck Duck Go is actually considered worse than Google even by many people that use Duck Duck Go so this is considered a significant feature. Granted, it's debatable how much worse but Bing / Duck Duck go are viewed as competitive search engines not better search engines. Plenty of people are doing regular head to head comparisons with people using different search engines for the same query if they can't find it on one they use the other. After a while the 'better' engine generally becomes their dealt. Windows on the other hand has a lot of inertia due to third part integration. For example there is a much smaller selection of games on OS X than windows which creates a feedback loop. There is no way OS X could hit 50% market share in 3 years let alone a brand new OS starting from scratch, but search has seen massive swings in market share fairly recently. PS: The g! feature is also great for fine tuning their search engine. Providing a listing of every pain point when people gave up.
  - TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
    DDG definitely has sore spots. But the ! shortcuts more than make up for it.