Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#1

Post by kyloren » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 10:58 AM UTC

I was reading this book called 'In The Plex' which talks about the beginnings of Google, how no one thought of using back-links in ranking web pages and how Larry Page used it to make Page rank it's a fascinating book to read, and surprised to see how everyone missed an idea like that.

Fast forward to today, has search reached its climax? Can't there be any other search engine that will deliver better results than Google? There was a time when people talked about social search for a while but that too died down.

So is there a new frontier for search? Will there be a better search engine in the next few decades?

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#2

Post by jsmith0295 » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 11:02 AM UTC

Probably not. Google will likely remain at the top, although they'll continue to improve. It might end up being effectively a new engine decades from now, but it will most likely get there by evolving gradually over time.

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#3

Post by fairpx » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 11:21 AM UTC

The answer, I think, is in the book you're reading. Search was stuck long before Google came. Then came Google and they made search better. Right now, search again is stuck. Until someone comes up with a way that everybody else is missing, to take search to a new level.

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#4

Post by kyloren » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 11:29 AM UTC

fairpx wrote: post #3

The answer, I think, is in the book you're reading. Search was stuck long before Google came. Then came Google and they made search better. Right now, search again is stuck. Until someone comes up with a way that everybody else is missing, to take search to a new level.

I am yet to come to that point of the book. Where is the search stuck at the moment? I can't seem to understand that.

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#5

Post by saran945 » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 11:55 AM UTC

Though there are many better ideas like semantic search, entity search, Q & A, deep search, etc. Startups could crack some market share from big players. Building better search engine is not the big problem for startups, but from business perspective, It's a marathon race - in terms of scale, investment, making the user switching from google etc. also Google have billions of $$, thousands of researchers working to improve the results, competing them is not easy, hence many stay away from search engine development.

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#6

Post by mongodude » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 12:19 PM UTC

I don't think there will be a search engine better than Google in the near future (may not forever). Best search engines today will have to throw results based on user preferences to stay relevant and compete with Google's results. Cracking the perfect semantic search (chat bots) may change this but Google may have advantage here just because of the amount of data it has. Any great algorithm, unfortunately will be limited by the data on which it will be trained. Google has this unique advantage.

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#7

Post by Pamar » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

kyloren wrote: post #4

fairpx wrote: post #3

The answer, I think, is in the book you're reading. Search was stuck long before Google came. Then came Google and they made search better. Right now, search again is stuck. Until someone comes up with a way that everybody else is missing, to take search to a new level.

I am yet to come to that point of the book. Where is the search stuck at the moment? I can't seem to understand that.

I suppose you are too young to have used Altavista? Or Yahoo "curated" link lists?

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#8

Post by kyloren » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 1:11 PM UTC

Pamar wrote: post #7

kyloren wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am yet to come to that point of the book. Where is the search stuck at the moment? I can't seem to understand that.

I suppose you are too young to have used Altavista? Or Yahoo "curated" link lists?

Yes I have not used altavista but I have read about it, and I've read the book and I know search was stuck back then, my question was why the above comment says search is stuck at the moment, because I don't see search stuck at the moment.

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#9

Post by brudgers » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 1:49 PM UTC

The idea of a search engine is long since gone. Google is a destination...mail, news, interesting links, etc. So is Facebook [just replace 'mail' with 'messages']. It's really the Yahoo/AOL/Compuserve model that works over the long haul.

The future of actual search is something that gets out of the way like Siri or Cortana. But there's not really money in search. The money is in siloing and data collection.

Re: Ask HN: Will there be a better Google?

#10

Post by brudgers » Sat, Sep 03, 2016, 1:52 PM UTC

Pamar wrote: post #7

kyloren wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am yet to come to that point of the book. Where is the search stuck at the moment? I can't seem to understand that.

I suppose you are too young to have used Altavista? Or Yahoo "curated" link lists?

The pre-Google search engine I preferred during it's brief period of utility was 'WebCrawler' because it returned dumb results. Google doesn't do that any more, it's back to curated links with advertising being a large factor in curation.