The Trinitarian Formula of Search

In the name of Google, and of Microsoft and of Yahoo!… Amen!

This is what the search world looks like since a few years. We fail to talk about something else when it comes to search engines. Even when pretty faces like Powerset and hakia dare to come on stage, they are still reported to the holy triad of search, still compared, still dissected and still judged based on what we already describe as “the top three search engines.” No one can compete against the three, they say. No one can even dream to come close to such market reach and popularity.

Too Lazy to Think

Under the slogan “too lazy to think” the three search engines at the top of the pyramid find other ways to “improve” their quality. The PR game makes the war look like a calm sea; while the little search engines (that could) strive for attention.

Maybe Powerset and hakia do have cutting edge algorithms or AI that will revolutionize search as we know it, but does this technology surface? No, because both are afraid that one of the mighty giants will use its financial power to “purchase” this technology from someone else. Alas, Google has a history of crushing its competitors by buying them. Microsoft is less aggressive and more innovative, despite the general public perception, while Yahoo! almost always fails to invest in the right services…

So here we are, in the middle of the media war, being tantalized by one or another little search engine wannabe, to compare its results to Google’s, Microsoft’s or Yahoo!’s. What these little entities forget is that we truly are searchers and we are indeed Google users. I am not saying Google fans! If the results of a comparison are not visibly superior what will we do? Dash the search engine that failed us and never go back.

How many users did hakia lose because of its online comparison tool? Mahalo, which manages to give the impression of “social search,” has a similar comparison tool. Unlike hakia who dares tilting at the windmills like Don Quixote once, encouraging its users to compare its search results with Google’s, Mahalo disguises its “comparison tool” under a “metasearch engine” approach displaying results from Mahalo, Google, Yahoo!, Live Search (Microsoft), Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Flickr and YouTube. However, as far as the search war is concerned Mahalo is not even in the game. The only entities with some chances are still Powerset and hakia. Things get complicated though…

Microsoft and Yahoo!

Microsoft tried to consolidate its position and offered Yahoo! a lame $ 44.6 billion. Sure, Yahoo!’s value is higher and the game ended bad for Microsoft. Yahoo! gained some free PR coverage from this, then the waters calmed…

Microsoft and Powerset

Microsoft knows that without better technology its position in search is unsure. Rejected by Yahoo!, Microsoft had to focus its interest on another search engine able to provide a technology that would somehow “shake” Google. Here is where Powerset enters the game.

Yahoo! and hakia

Hakia’s only real competitor is Powerset. Threatened by Powerset’s success, hakia forced itself in the Yahoo! family, only one week after the deal between Powerset and Microsoft was announced. The news read “hakia Leverages Yahoo! Search BOSS to Accelerate its Semantic Analysis of the World Wide Web”

The logical questions follow: is hakia hoping to attract Yahoo!’s attention and close a similar deal as Microsoft and Powerset with Yahoo!? Then why not aiming for Google?

Google and… Who?

Could it be that Google is not interested in semantic search? Google has over ten years of experience in search. It would be only logical for them to implement semantic algorithms if the need were real. There already are some semantic elements implemented in their algorithms, but the technology is not entirely based on semantic analysis. Google still provides search results based on keywords and keyword phrases, site popularity, interrelations between sites (links) and etc.

Only one year ago (February 2007), at the Annual American Association for the Advancement of Science, Google’s Larry Page announced the ability to build artificial intelligence:

We have some people at Google [who] are really trying to build artificial intelligence (AI) and to do it on a large scale… It’s not as far off as people think.

This is at least a hint that Google does not feel threatened by Microsoft’s merger with Powerset and the very reason why they are still ignoring hakia. Of course hakia is aware of the problem, or else why would you think they’d resort to Yahoo! ‘s BOSS in their efforts to make a mark in search?

There are enough signs that Google will change its search algorithms and the way it displays search results in the future, but the change will not go into the direction of “semantic search.” Google’s approach will probably be social.

This is where Mahalo could fit in the game, but Mahalo is far behind other newer social search engines from a technological point of view. This leaves us with newcomers like Delver under scrutiny, if Google’s new search interface will not deliver the expected results.