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Thursday, January 08, 2004
Ng: Top search engine on the Web
By Wilson Ng
WIRED DESKTOP
GOING PUBLIC.If you have been browsing the Internet, you must have heard of Google. Founded by two college students who are until now still below their 30s, www.google.com has become the number one search engine in the Web.
It is estimated that it serve tens of millions of search queries every day. In fact, this private company has captured the headlines of many business magazines, and its public listing is one of the most anticipated for the year 2004.
Various estimates have it that its market capitalization could easily hit almost $20 billion. In newer dictionaries, you will find a new verb—to “google,” which means to find it in the Web. I have heard it mentioned also several times in television and movies.
Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and various other websites are scrambling to see what they can do to compete with this elegant search site.
There may be a little brother to this website which you may find to be lots of fun—for short searches. It is a site you can find at www.googlism.com. It is really very simple. There is a space you fill up, and you can choose whether it is a who, a what, a when, a where or a what’s cool.
If you put a person’s name, like for instance, Bill Gates, then you check on the who, and click search. What it will do is look up its database and serve up what various websites are saying about Bill Gates. It is sometimes fun, sometimes enlightening.
For instance, Bill Gates is variously the richest man, the best businessman, the best executive, the devil incarnate, the genius, the monopolist plus all other things and opinions various websites say about him.
You can try using some of your friends’ names, or some politician’s name. You might want to try for instance, Gloria Maca-pagal-Arroyo, or Bill Clinton. Of course, the longer the definitions, the more popular the person is more likely to be.
If you would like to know about a thing, like what people think about an item like a Thinkpad notebook computer, write it down, and click on the what. Then you can easily glean what others say about the item.
If you would like to know more about a date, like Sept. 11, then click on that, and the when. For a place, like what other people have written about Cebu, or the Philippines, click on the where. For new things like knowing more about google, simply check what’s cool.
It is very easy to use, and can be educational. If you want to know what people think about somebody you know, or some thing or place, why not give it a try?
(Wilson welcomes readers’ comments at Wilson@esprint.com.)
(January 8, 2004 issue)
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