Google Competitors Are Dreaming If They Think They Can Beat The Big G
August 6, 2008 – 1:08 pmAfter seeing how much attention Cuil.com got for the launch of their basically shitty search engine, you realize just how much interest there would be in an alternative. I’m not sure what the numbers would translate into, but the target audience would be huge. People have been dealing with Google for years, and not all of them have had pleasant experiences, so they’re certainly ready to jump on the band wagon of anyone who comes along.
But frankly, Google’s success is for such a simple reason that people sometimes miss it. Google is so successful because their search engine generally finds the “right” results. Plus they do it often enough that people have become totally used to the system. Further, Google has tied all of us into so many sophisticated programs that their volume of traffic is just enormous. Could someone beat them? Theoretically, but they’ll have their work cut out for them. Besides, if Google realizes another company is making progress they’ll probably buy them out quickly.
Really, anyone who plans on beating Google has to do it by providing better results. And that’s going to be tough to do, especially when you consider that Google almost always:
- Provides very fresh results
- Does have most of the web indexed
- Provides generally relevant SERPs
The real key to their success is that they do this billions of times a month and rarely “choke” on a single search. They’re the undisputed leaders in scale and sophistication and any start-up is a long way away from catching up.
Tags: Google
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2 Responses to “Google Competitors Are Dreaming If They Think They Can Beat The Big G”
I think you’re right - the thought of anyone taking on and beating Google at the moment is pretty unlikely.
I would imagine that Google will stay at the top of its game for a good many years to come. I guess, one day they will be eclipsed by another company, but the attack will probably come from a direction that we don’t know anything about yet.
Going back to the mid-nineties, who would have thought that there would ever be another company with more influence than Microsoft?
I think Google have well and truly got the search engine market wrapped up, but there will be other emerging markets over the coming years that will have just as much control over the way we use computers…I just wish I knew waht they were!
By John on Aug 11, 2008
Well, you missed one important point. When google started it was just as shitty as cuil. Your comparing a brand-new engine to something that’s been out there for years. That doesn’t make any sense. You have to start somewhere. It takes time to render the “right” results. The reason cuil’s where it is now is because you need a certain amount of popularity to actually make your search engine work. After all, the content that gets displayed is based on the hits you get. If there isn’t enough traffic, your results will suffer. I’d give cuil engineers the credit for standing up to a giant like google. Most of these people are programmers and data analysts with years of experience. Watch where they’re going to be in a year or so.
By Anonymous on Aug 15, 2008