garyp
08-23-2004, 09:52 PM
Search engine study raises new question: Who's #1?
Source: San Jose Business Journal
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2004/08/23/focus1.html
Timothy Andrews writes that others are catching-up with Google in terms of search technology. I happen to agree. The article doesn't mention what I also believe to be a new trend in commercial search, the growing importance of verticals.
Here are a few quotes.
"The tech gap is continuing to close," says Gary Stein, who covers search engines including Google for Jupiter Media. "The technology is reaching the point of decreasing returns for the consumer."
"Google realizes it needs to step into those areas because it is vulnerable," says Liz Edison, director of syndicated research for San Mateo-based Vividence. "Any new player can enter this space and build a brand; there's no real difference in terms of technology."
Steve Sordello, CFO of Emeryville-based Ask Jeeves Inc. sees a future in these additions.
"Search is still in its early days," he says. "This is just the second inning of the ball game."
The only issue I have with the article is that it makes it seem like PageRank, what others call link analysis, is something that only Google uses. Yes, Google gets full credit for being the first one to use it in a commercial web engine but everyone else includes it in their algorithm. In fact, in the Brin/Page's original paper they cite the work of Jon Kleinberg and others. Kleinberg, at that time part of IBM's Clever project, has some of these idea incorporated into Teoma. The article also makes it seem like that all Google cares about is link analysis/PageRank to determine relevancy.
To a certain degree the article also confuses link analysis with popularity. Jill W. does a good job of explaining the differences here. (http://www.isedb.com/news/article/977)
Source: San Jose Business Journal
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2004/08/23/focus1.html
Timothy Andrews writes that others are catching-up with Google in terms of search technology. I happen to agree. The article doesn't mention what I also believe to be a new trend in commercial search, the growing importance of verticals.
Here are a few quotes.
"The tech gap is continuing to close," says Gary Stein, who covers search engines including Google for Jupiter Media. "The technology is reaching the point of decreasing returns for the consumer."
"Google realizes it needs to step into those areas because it is vulnerable," says Liz Edison, director of syndicated research for San Mateo-based Vividence. "Any new player can enter this space and build a brand; there's no real difference in terms of technology."
Steve Sordello, CFO of Emeryville-based Ask Jeeves Inc. sees a future in these additions.
"Search is still in its early days," he says. "This is just the second inning of the ball game."
The only issue I have with the article is that it makes it seem like PageRank, what others call link analysis, is something that only Google uses. Yes, Google gets full credit for being the first one to use it in a commercial web engine but everyone else includes it in their algorithm. In fact, in the Brin/Page's original paper they cite the work of Jon Kleinberg and others. Kleinberg, at that time part of IBM's Clever project, has some of these idea incorporated into Teoma. The article also makes it seem like that all Google cares about is link analysis/PageRank to determine relevancy.
To a certain degree the article also confuses link analysis with popularity. Jill W. does a good job of explaining the differences here. (http://www.isedb.com/news/article/977)