Google has become the prototype of search engines the world over, a fact that’s both amazing and funny when you consider that it was not even the first search engine to be invented. The brand name Google is now a verb – when you google something, it means you’re ¬searching for it on the Internet, irrespective of the search engine you use. The rapid spurt of popularity enjoyed by this giant has propelled it into the realms of superstardom, a fantasy land that other aspiring search engines can only dream about attaining. So it’s natural that every new search engine on the block wants to be a Google killer, the midget that ultimately slays the giant.
A simple google on the phrase “google killer” leads to a plethora of links, some of which are pretty old (two years is an eternity when you’re talking about something as instant and immediate as the World Wide Web). At first there was talk about the Quaero, the search engine that was supposed to be Europe’s answer to Google and Yahoo. We then heard about Cuil, the next-generation search engine that based its claim to fame on the fact that its search index could store 120 billion pages as opposed to Google’s 40 billion. Cuil also claimed to provide search results based on relevance rather than popularity based on links as Google does. Then are new approaches like Searchme.com, a visual search engine, which is being called the Apple coverflow for search results.
The latest in the list of Google Killers is of course, the Wolfram Alpha, the search engine that’s scheduled for a May release and is touted to be an “answer engine” rather than a mere “search engine”. The Wolfram Alpha is said to be designed on the lines of Web 3.0 where semantics rule. The Web and the computer are supposed to be imbued with natural language skills, an attribute that was until now unique to human beings. To put it in layman’s terms – when you run a search on word that’s spelled the same but has two or more different meanings, Google and any other search engine would return a list of sites that contain this particular word, without taking into account the exact meaning you had in mind. A semantic search engine would automatically know the difference, and give you results based on your needs. And that is why they’re calling the Wolfram Alpha an “answer” engine rather than a search engine, because it supposedly “answers” your query rather than just providing you with results based on a search.
It remains to be seen if the Wolfram Alpha will live up to the hype and the expectations that it is generating. While its creators are certain that Google is going to want in on this technology, not because it is afraid of the competition, but because it is something that is an entirely new product, there are others who believe that the only real Google killer is Google itself. Either the company could get so caught up in its popularity that it begins to rest on its laurels and lose the market share that it has garnered, or it could keep coming up with more and more innovative products that continue to revolutionize the way we use the Internet and its associated networks.
But for now, the fact remains that every time I need to look up something on the web, it’s going to take one hell of a product to keep me from typing in www.google.com into my web browser!
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This post was contributed by Courtney Phillips, who writes about accredited homeschool. She welcomes your feedback at CourtneyPhillips80 at gmail.com
