The History of Everyone... Except Google?

So the first 3 chapters of "The Search" has covered the History of Search before Google existed. I'm not sure how I feel about how the author chose to set up this information. I really lost track of time with it, and for a class I think it would be interesting to make, or have the students make a time line which reflects all the things going on at once.
Again I noticed his comment on how Google is so amazing that Yahoo bought it to be its default search engine. Now Bing is powering Yahoo Search. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8174763.stm
I wonder what the author would think about this. And what this says about Yahoo, Bing, and Google's power over the market.
~Christina

Behold the Power of Search

The first chapter of this book can be described as nothing other than eye opening. After finishing the first chapter, I actually think that the fact that it was written in 2005 makes it more interesting. First of all we can look and see that Battelle has done a very good job of predicting things that will happen in some direct forms. But we can also see new products that very much understand the power of "the search" and created thriving businesses... Like, say, Facebook.

I am looking forward to this book because Battelle does such a good job setting the stage in the first chapter. By mentioning just a few ways that search can be powerful, he enables me to begin to think of other ways that it could be powerful in the future.

Some of the main search concepts make sense to me and don't seem that surprising but the idea of search powering artificial intelligence is one that I haven't considered before. It will be interesting to see how Battelle further develops this concept.

Group Reading Plan

We met on Wednesday morning. We also discussed a tentative schedule for completing the book before the end of the semester:

March 17th - March 23 Chapters 1-4
March 24 - March 30 Chapters 5-8
March 31 - April 6 Chapters 9 - 11 + Afterword
April 7 - April 13 Work on Presentation
April 14 - April 20 Write Paper

~Christina

The Search: Thoughts After Reading the First Chapter..

I really enjoy what I have read so far. In just the first chapter, Battelle has already brought up and expanded upon many interesting topics. The most important, and the basis for the book, is the idea of "Search". Prior to reading, I had a very basic understanding of the idea. I guess I never put together that Search applies to many different platforms, not just the internet.

Moreover, the idea of a "Database of Intentions" blew my mind. I knew peoples actions on the internet provides corporations with a lot of information, but i guess I never really thought about it or read in concrete words the intricacies and implications of how it really works. Through aggregating peoples queries and clickstreams, companies like Google can track preferences, needs, wants, etc. Taking it further, this information can be exploited to both provide users with a better experience and turn profit for the company. Paid Search is the first example of this. This has huge implications and I'm excited to continue reading how Google has modeled their business plan in order to take advantage of Search.

Getting Started

I just stopped by Borders to pick up "The Search" by John Battelle. And decided to read the first few pages while I was in between classes. I'm really excited to be reading this book, even though it is mostly about Google, as I was offered an internship with Bing just this past week. I am excited to see what insights this book might give me into the business of search, and hopefully it will help me prepare for my internship by giving a little bit of background.
Due to my situation, one of the first things I noted was when this book was written (Copyright 2005). So it would be interesting to do some research into any things that Bing has implemented in light of the proposition contained in "The Search", since it was released after this books publication (less than a year ago in fact). So I'm excited to relate this to my upcoming experience.
~Christina