Google's pursuit: knowledge

To answer a question recently posed to me by CNBC host Ron Insana, Google's ultimate goal is to have a wire into our brains in order to have complete knowledge of who we are.  Of course, I don't believe that Google's growing stable of scientists -- however brilliant and talented they are -- will ever succeed in having complete, or perfect, knowledge and information about the world even if every piece of information is broken down into quantifiable and measurable bits (but that's a philosophical story).  Nonetheless, knowledge is Google's goal or passion, if academic reports published on Google is any hint. Here's one I like, authored by Monika Henzinger, Google Research Director, and titled: "Extracting knowledge from the World Wide Web."

For now, Google derives a lot of its knowledge from the queries typed into its search engine. Today, typed in queries, tomorrow, spoken queries, and the day after tomorrow, our thoughts. Will machines know us better than we know ourselves?

Read Net Sense on MarketWatch

Additionally, there is speculation that Google is expected to unveil its own payment and classifieds business at Google Zeitgeist this week, according to Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor.  In a statement, Google said it is working on a service that allows users to post their own content onto Google, but the company has no plans to make any announcements. Regardless if Google announces a classified business or not, it's a business I've always thought made a lot of sense. I wrote about it back in June.

Read Net Sense (6/21/05): Google listings, now that hurts

Read Google testing 'Google Base' on MarketWatch

Finally, why is AOL suddenly relevant? AOL's advertising sales are growing faster than the industry and AOL accounts for 10% of online ads in the first six months of this year. Additionally, it has a declining dial-up subscriber base. These dial-up subs are ripe for picking if you're a broadband provider.  AOL has 49 million IM subscribers - a good platform for emerging communications portals.  I can't list all the reasons here, but read Net Sense on MarketWatch for the rest of the story.

Read Net Sense (10/17/05): Suddenly relevant

Comments

[Jack Krupansky]

As to your query at the end of your NetSense column on MarketWatch.com: "Is AOL better off with Google or Microsoft?"...

I think the *right* answer is for Time Warner to spin off AOL as an independent business (again), with enough cash to fund at least three years of technology, infrastructure, and marketing development, and then see how the business does and then see who wants to acquire them and at what price. Let a new AOL partner with whoever makes sense (e.g., Yahoo content, all the major search engines, all the major browsers, the major broadband infrastructure owners, etc.) and see how the business evolves.

An open question is whether AOL should be spun off as a public company or sold to private equity with an IPO or merger two or three years down the road.

There is literally no way for any armchair pundits to know how AOL might evolve with a team of executives and managers who would no longer need to second-guess the whims of a corporate bureaucracy like Time Warner.

I think I'd want to see a new AOL buy a few of the smaller ISPs such as PeoplePC as low-cost brands and really focus on improving the overall internet access experience for consumers who have gotten a bit jaded by it all. Broadband is great and AOL should exploit it, but dial-up or entry-level broadband could be a win for a new powerhouse AOL.

As far as Microsoft and AOL, my view is that Microsoft needs to eventually dump the internet access business and focus more on content and search and services. The new AOL should pick up MSN access, not the other way around.

Google? Get over it. Google is reasonably good at a lot of things, but has gotten horribly overstretched (as Microsoft has as well) and stretching further is doing more damage to their franchise than good.

I use Google for search and even get a little revenue from AdSense ads on my web pages, but my frustration with Google is growing by the day. Google search is not growing even as Microsoft and Yahoo are catching up and even surpassing them in some ways. So far I haven't dropped Google as my primary search, but I'm getting dangerously close, and Google's growing egomania (or maybe it's more the media's mania over Google) is making even Microsoft look attractive. That's a terribly sad thing. Rather than needing more media cheerleaders, Google needs a significant degree of sound criticism. Blending Google and AOL would do significant harm to both brands, although both are growing so increasingly tarnished that maybe nobody would really notice the damage at all.

But to simply answer your original query, I'd say that Microsoft would do a better job of exploiting AOL's potential. MSN has done a very credible job with content over the years and does a credible job with basic internet access. I'm actually an old-timer with MSN now, since July 1999 -- six years now. As far as content, I access tons of Yahoo content, so I'd be happy to see Yahoo and AOL combine.

-- Jack Krupansky

[rogerd]

I think two major dynamics are at work here... (1) Google sees that it has, for the moment, better expertise in organizing massive amounts of information, and (2) Google knows it has to create much "stickier" content than web search. Yahoo has had a big "time on site" advantage over Google, and I'm sure Google is hoping some of their initiatives take off and begin to reduce that gap.

And when the day comes that Google and Microsoft CAN plug into your brain... I'd expect Microsoft to implant a brain productivity accellerator (hoping to sell you annual upgrades), while Google would monitor your wants and needs (in order to show you targeted ads). :)