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Ask HN: Is Google reaching its limit?

1 points by stealthdude ↗ HN
I could argue Google has made only superficial improvements to it's search engine over the past 5 years. They tweak the algorithm, they change rankings, and they add "instant" search.

I get the distinct feeling that Google has already reached, or is quickly approaching a technology barrier, where they simply don't know how to improve search any further before their competitors catch up. And this is guiding their decisions to enter so many other industries and make so many acquisitions.

What do you think it will take to make a search engine several orders of magnitude better than Google than is today? (is NLP-based A.I. required?)

1 comment

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qasar
i think if one views google as a search company, its logical to make that conclusion. but i think google sees itself as a way to organize information and that battle is far from over with the amount of information that is coming online or being created.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/schmidt-data/

if you look at it from the organization perspective, some of the acquisitions seem a bit more logical. if you're google, do what you can to make sure your on the forefront of information organization (AI, AR, locale, instant...whatever might be the next way to organize)

I think startups that continue to organize that information will thrive

Less abstractly, google gets a vast majority of revenue from a few sources and thats risky, so enter lots of industries and try to diversify