
Google Admits "Data is the Intel Inside" - Anon84
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/12/google-admits-data-is-the-inte.html
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bootload
_"... what we're seeing actually is that with a lot of data, you ultimately
see things that seem intelligent even though they're done through brute force
..."_

This simple idea applied to problems like spelling (and obviously search) has
an orders of magnitude improvement over previous hacks. So while MS Word might
append those squiggly lines underneath your name when you type it into word,
spell checking your name in google is more than likely to show your name and
links to it. Check this simple python spelling example by Norvig ~
<http://norvig.com/spell-correct.html>

Add a bit of Maths (probability theory) and loads of data that Google collects
and Google spell correction kicks MS Words F7 butt.

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aristus
"Admits?" Google have been saying this in public, in as many words, for years.
The thing is that no one believes them.

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snprbob86
Tell me about it! Some people (see liuliu's reply) didn't believe me:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=356329>

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kqr2
Google's mission statement:

 _To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and
useful._

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jfarmer
And sell ads on top of it.

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kragen
Just a means to an end, when they started out doing that — hopefully that
remains the case.

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jfarmer
When they started out doing that I don't think they realized it'd make them
into a billion dollar company. The calculus has changed a bit since then.

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rgrieselhuber
Yes, this is an old post but one thing that strikes me about the semantic web
vs. brute force approach is that the semantic web approach is (assuming it
works) much cheaper for startups, whereas the brute force practically dictates
having tons of cash and an existing infrastructure.

Taken from this perspective, it's easy to see why the big players favor the
brute force approach.

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fizx
December 2007

