Two Google Ideas

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2006-11-04

Google have created a powerful brand based on creating simplicity from complexity (what all good IT is about). Their tools aren’t perfect, but they’ve made life easier for billions, and so I think they still deserve some free feedback from time-to-time. So, a few thoughts:

Mr. Google, please develop a podcast search engine. So much interesting content is now being released as podcasts (quick plug for my favourite: EconTalk), that it would be useful to be able to search them. All you have to do is invent a speech-to-text interpreter that actually works reliably. Simple. [Note: as I sometimes do, I wrote this post in advance of it being published. I’ve since discovered that such a tool already exists. However, I thought I’d leave the original prose here: Google, if you get one out soon, you could still corner the market]
Mr. Google, please stop developing so many interfaces - and plug them all together. If I want to do an exhaustive search for something, I now have to search Google Web, Google Images, Google Groups, Google News, Google Video, Google Blog Search, Google Book Search, Google Scholar, and possibly others. This is not a good thing - you’re straying from the simple search you started with. Some of those searches do show up in the main search results, but you could do a better job of tying them together to show what I’m actually looking for. This could be a real competitive edge, especially since the basic searches that MSN and others provide are now actually quite reasonable.

Google still have an edge in providing what people want - for a company so technically-focused, they either have talented marketers or are just lucky. Please, Google, keep it up.

Comments

Um... the LA Times story was first posted on 6th October...

— dps 2006-11-06 00:05

OK, Dave, thanks for the link - am pleased to see I'm two days ahead of the LA times :) Looks like some at Google are taking heed. They better hope Sergey can convince bright young programmers that dotting the Is and crossing the Ts is a worthy thing. But I wish Google luck.

— andrewferrier 2006-11-05 20:47

Interesting post, Andy. On the point that Richard raised, see http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google6oct06,0,945092.story

— dps 2006-11-05 16:57

Richard, I think that's a little harsh - Google have done a pretty good job of sticking a decent consistent interface on conversations (Google Groups, based off NNTP, a creaking old standard), email (Gmail, ditto for SMTP). Sure, they haven't tied the front ends together, which I feel is an oversight, but that should be a piece of cake, considering they own all the source code. But they are still a young company, and you're right in that many such challenges do come as a company grows older and more self-satisfied. What I've seen of Google so far indicates they stand a good chance of weathering some of that. And you still use their products - so they're doing something right.

— andrewferrier 2006-11-04 23:15

"but you could do a better job of tying them together to show what I’m actually looking for." This, I suspect, will prove to be Google's undoing. Creating something brand new is fun and cool. Integrating existing systems, dealing with legacy code and consolidating incompatible systems is hard. Google has yet to show they have any competence at all in this area :-)

— Richard G Brown 2006-11-04 16:46