When Google goes public, they are obliged to answer to their shareholders. Will altruism will be displaced by greed?
According to a letter to prospective shareholders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have structured the IPO to protect their independence and allow them the freedom they need to build the company and maintain their higher ideals. Best of luck to them!
This article discusses Google’s ranking methodologies within the context of the lawless and uncooperative Internet. Although it is written with the web page developer in mind, one strong message to Index and SE developers is this – you can’t expect the Internet to play by your rules. Accept it for what it is, and be prepared to adapt.
The nature of meaning in the age of Google. Google, Indexing, Web, Meaning
As they say in the article – think about the search engine you’d really like to have: AI and the next generation of search engine:
Sidebar: Artificial intelligence and the smarter search engine – Computerworld
“How do you reliably make a scalable web service wicked fast? Easy: the whole thing has to be in memory, and user requests must never wait for disk.”
A nice blog entry on the power and scope of Google:
“This computer is running the world’s top search engine, a social networking service, a shopping price comparison engine, a new email service, and a local search/yellow pages engine. What will they do next with the world’s biggest computer and most advanced operating system?”
Topix.net Weblog: The Secret Source of Google’s Power
Google is massive. Google is daunting. Open source search and indexing is daunting. But the way I look at it, there’s always going to be somebody working on it, so in time, open source search-and-indexing-and-spidering-and-so-on, should evolve to become something pretty sophisticated – baby steps.
In the development of a public or community grassroots system there are significant constraints, but to many, those are simply challenges.