
Why There Aren't More Googles - CaiGengYang
Paul Graham wrote an essay : &quot;Why There Aren&#x27;t More Googles&quot; --- http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;googles.html.<p>In it, he referenced an essay by Umar Haque who wrote on the same issue. The link is in the first line of the essay.<p>I clicked it, but it gave an error message : https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hbr.org&#x2F;error&#x2F;page-not-found<p>Anyone knows where I can find a working link to this essay ?
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dalke
There's an excellent site called 'archive.org', which has the quite honorable
and noble goal of "universal access to all knowledge", which includes
archiving the web.

They have been crawling the web for almost 20 years, and in this case they
archived that URL several times in April of 2008. Here's a URL for one of
those crawls:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080428142826/http://discussion...](https://web.archive.org/web/20080428142826/http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/04/i_agree_and_i.html)

You really should explore what the Internet Archive offers. See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive)
. The various presentations by Jason Scott, 'rogue archivist' are also
entertaining, and give an idea of the spirit behind the Internet Archive,
textfiles.com, and similar efforts.

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CaiGengYang
Cool! Thanks for the link ...

It's a genuinely interesting question (at least to me) what the "next Google"
is going to look like. Is there space to build a search engine that surpasses
Google (given how fast and powerful Google already is) ?

Not sure if I am just imagining things , but it seems like Google has slowed
down a little in recent years. When I type terms in the search bar nowadays
(using a Mac laptop) and click the search button, it seems like there is a
short (but barely perceptible) pause before the result is displayed. And Gmail
seems to have slowed down quite abit too --- is it because Gmail is slow or I
have a huge inbox? I seem to recall a time when Google was first launched,
everything you did on it was virtually instantaneous. (Or am i just
speculating and imagining things after reading this essay?)

Maybe the "next Google" won't be a search engine at all, but some kind of
quantum computer skynet system that basically connects everyone on the planet
instantaneously through thought processes or a futuristic 3d holographic
hardware laptop that displays your screen and keyboard as floating 3d
holograms that appear in front of your face , which you can manipulate with
your fingers ..

THAT would be really cool lol !

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roger_vg
I think search is broken. People receive millions of results without meaning
while they only read through the first 10-15 titles.

I believe there still is opportunity for new players. You don't need to
deliver millions of results, just the 15 links that are really valuable and
rich.

~~~
shardinator
But if the first 10-15 are valuable and rich and the rest don't slow you down
or disadvantage you, isn't it the same thing.

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CaiGengYang
Precisely ... does it matter whether you have millions of results as long as
the first few results gives you the answers you want ?

~~~
shardinator
Yes I agree. The real question is, would removing the extra 10 million results
give you a distinct advantage? I don't feel it would.

~~~
CaiGengYang
Google does have one weakness though ... As Paul Graham mentioned , Gmail has
grown painfully slow and inbox wasn't meant to be used as a messaging protocol
... Inbox was meant to be a to-do list, not a messaging protocol. Perhaps a
new and more elegant email system would prove to be a very successful startup

