Another look under the hood of search

#1

Post by bjonathan » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 5:20 PM UTC

Another look under the hood of search
googleblog.blogspot.com

Re: Another look under the hood of search

#2

Post by seunghomattyang » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 8:00 PM UTC

Am I the only one who really likes behind-the-scenes videos? Sometimes I enjoy them more than the actual products/movies.

Anyhow, it's great that Google is making constant improvements to its search but lately, I feel like the results aren't as good as they used to be because of SEO spam and people gaming the algorithm solely for profit.

Re: Another look under the hood of search

#3

Post by wgx » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 8:25 PM UTC

What surprised me was the human element, I'd expected it to be more data-driven with less human debate.

Re: Another look under the hood of search

#4

Post by ilv » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 8:56 PM UTC

I was expecting Sanjay Gupta to pop in!

Re: Another look under the hood of search

#5

Post by gojomo » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 9:24 PM UTC

Surprised to see that what appears to be the "feature launch committee" has about 30 people in the room... and another 15 or so patched in by video. (Perhaps most are just 'flies on the wall' to learn?)

Re: Another look under the hood of search

#6

Post by mckoss » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 9:32 PM UTC

What's the spin here? Google is trying to project:

    - Search is a hard, interesting problem - and we have really smart
      people working on it (come work with us).
    - Search is a competitive business (don't regulate us).
    - We use a scientific process (don't investigate our practices
      as a potential conflict of interest).

The video is interesting. But one thing NOT addressed is how much is the search experience improving? Yes, they've made "500 changes" to the algorithm last year. By what measure is search quality going up (or down)?

I sense an improvement over the last 6 months (seeing less low quality or spam links) - but I'd like to see this quantified.

Re: Another look under the hood of search

#7

Post by mckoss » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 9:39 PM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #5

Surprised to see that what appears to be the "feature launch committee" has about 30 people in the room... and another 15 or so patched in by video. (Perhaps most are just 'flies on the wall' to learn?)

This was pretty typical at Microsoft too. Many groups (Windows, Office, Exchange, etc) had a leadership group hold a regular "war room" type meeting at which major decisions were made. From 10 to 30 participants was common at these (usually weekly) meetings.

It's a sign of bureaucracy, not trusting important decisions to individual contributors, and an ass-covering vehicle to remove blame when mistakes are made.

Some of it reflects a needed amount of "care" - but it can easily lead to bad organizational dynamics.

Re: Another look under the hood of search

#8

Post by mckoss » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 9:40 PM UTC

wgx wrote: post #3

What surprised me was the human element, I'd expected it to be more data-driven with less human debate.

I agree. Why are do so many people need to weigh in on what the "numbers" must be telling them. The process seems way more subjective than analytical.

Re: Another look under the hood of search

#9

Post by rachelbythebay » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 10:35 PM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #5

Surprised to see that what appears to be the "feature launch committee" has about 30 people in the room... and another 15 or so patched in by video. (Perhaps most are just 'flies on the wall' to learn?)

I think that makes it a banned meeting if it has more than 7 people in it. Really.