The World According To Google
It can also showcase fads at the expense of substance. "Popular does not make a site accurate, comprehensive, or even interesting," Vaidhyanathan says, using his own first name as an example. A Google search on "Siva" returns links to a song by the rock group Smashing Pumpkins and to Vaidhyanathan's own weblog. "Now, I'm named for an important Hindu god, worshipped by a billion people," he says. "Don't you think that Siva should get top billing?"
Google CEO Schmidt says that letting the majority decide shouldn't be seen as a bias. "I view it as an algorithm"--an automated process to distill the Web's values, he says. "Google doesn't know the truth, but it knows what others think is the truth." If so, Google's users just need to recognize its limits. And anyone who is still worried that the company skews search results should try this: Do a Google query on "search engine."
Google ranks down at No. 6.
LEXICON: "GOOGLEWHACK"
A game to find two words, without quotes, that appear on only one page in Google's index (such as mothproof underpants or potbellied veeps).
LEXICON: "GOOGLEBOMB"
Mischievously pushing a Web page to a top ranking. The trick: Multiple Web site owners use the same phrase on their sites while also linking to the target page.
LEXICON: "GOOGLOPOLY" Google's dominance of Web searches--though its position is now being challenged
AN ENGINE THAT COULD
A chart of the leading search companies' share of the market understates the dominance of Google's technology. Until February, for example, Yahoo! relied on the Google engine.
[Chart data is incomplete.]
[labels]
0
20
40
60%
'99
'00
'01
'02
'03
'04
Share of the search market
Yahoo!
Excite
Altavista
MSN
AOL
Source: WebSideStory
USN&WR
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