

Google And Monopoly Theater - zeratul
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/25/google-monopoly-theater

======
zeratul
The committee was unaware that Google mixes two distinct services: key word
search and question answering.

Key word search approximates your question and returns approximate answer. The
amount of interpolation of approximations forces to display a long list of
links. Here, the job can be done by simple ranking algorithm.

On the other hand, if we want to answer a concrete question we need to provide
a concrete information. Watson would not win Jeopardy if "he" provided just a
ranking. Here, the job is done by understanding the question. After that we
just need a look up table. Google is not secret about their data model. If
your web site is fully annotated with OWL and RDF, surly Google can use it for
question answering look up resource.

~~~
Retric
Google has some decent built in responses to things like:

atomic weight carbon, 1+2, Movies 22202, ikea Arlington VA

But, there is still no progress on open ended questions aka "When was the
first flight to break the sound barrier?" Because most things seem to be hard
coded responses to something like (Category) + Address; math; constants etc

~~~
nostrademons
Google can do some of that for certain queries:

[http://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+height+of+the+emp...](http://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+height+of+the+empire+state+building)

[http://www.google.com/search?q=what+was+the+length+of+the+ti...](http://www.google.com/search?q=what+was+the+length+of+the+titanic)

It doesn't know everything though - it came up blank on the first flight to
break the sound barrier.

------
gbog
The finance snippet could have the same layout as ads, this way it is more
obvious it is not in the ranks, and real ads clicks might even increase.

~~~
thezilch
Both Bing and Yahoo display the same results -- summary/graph/links to finance
product from search results, like Google -- and that this is just one example
of how search has evolved past serving blue links and that to be competitive
(good) at search, one needs to give the right answer without clicking through
to results. Google got really good at this; everyone else wish they thought /
got good at it first; and now Government is tasked with crippling Google's
products -- hurting consumers -- and allow only competitors to practice "as a
monopoly."

Personally, I've never felt like I was locked into Google, couldn't (didn't)
have all of my data elsewhere, or couldn't manage without their presence.
However, my life would suck a lot if Google didn't integrate with itself.

~~~
TallTalesOrTrue
In fact Google copied this from Bing. But the difference is that Google is a
search monopoly whereas bing is just a distant second or third depending how
you look at it.

