After reading the TechCrunch article earlier titled “Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google”, I’ve come to the conclusion that it belittles everything that Google has become.
To summarize the article, written by Vivek Wadhwa, Google has turned into an oasis of pay-per-click advertisers and SEO juggernauts rather than a pure information aggregator that provides exactly what you’re looking for. Thanks to the ever-producing fire hose of spam that is manned by corporations that are trying to work the search engine game, we are no longer able to get the information we need, but instead are subject to a wasteland of tailored advertising and Internet dead ends.
A new and better Google already exists. Since the first meeting of Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1995, Google has become a massive, multi-national corporation that provides a search engine…and much more. It is the “much more” that I want to discuss.
Google is not a search engine anymore. Sure, they have search capabilities and when it comes to things like movie times, you can find the information without even leaving Google itself for another page. But, people aren’t using Google in that way anymore. They are using it for document management, calendars, video searches, news reading, RSS feeds, translations, books…the list goes on forever. These tools are what make up Google and what it is today. It’s so much bigger than a search engine and to disregard that would be disrespectful to all the hard work of the countless employees who make up that company.
Sure, Google may not be the best tool for hardcore research. Why should it be? Does no one remember that classmate in school who cited www.google.com as one of his or her sources in a class presentation? It’s never been intended to be used as such. If you are looking to find information on your cat’s urinary tract infection, then look no further than Google search results. However, if you’re trying to find contact information for major business executives, expect some trouble. That information isn’t intended to be plastered everywhere so why should we expect it to be right in front of us?
Understanding that Google is no longer a search engine is the first step to understanding why we don’t need a new and better Google. And, I agree with Mr. Wahdwa: leave the hardcore research to the hardcore search engines like Blekko.
I’ll take my SEO wasteland (and calendar/document manager/translator/RSS reader) any day.
