Finding Genius in the Everyday Google

It seems that practically every week Google is doing something to overtly impress, or at least intrigue, me.

Whether it's their continued forays into new technology (Google Voice, the Android mobile phone platform), introduction of or improvements to applications (such as Google Earth, Maps and Translate) or often-noteworthy business news, like their approval this week to buy & broker energy (yes, like a utility) and their altruistic donation of $2 million to Wikipedia, the company that began less than 15 years ago in a Stanford dorm room, continues to revolutionize the world in ways big and small.

But while "google" really is now in the dictionary as a verb, being impressed with their search engine itself seems so 20th Century. Searching for stuff on Google, and quickly finding what you want, has become so automatic--and far better than any other search engine I've tried--that I kind of just take it for granted.

However, a wonderful article in this month's WIRED, reveals that what seems simple is really the result of hardcore genius and constant tinkering. The biggest of the big shots at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters hold ongoing meetings to discuss and rectify flaws in the Google search algorithm, and every few years Google completely revamps its system--which unlike the publicity and often pain that surrounds new versions of Windows, happens without any hype and usually without a hiccup.

Although the article reveals that Microsoft's enhanced search engine, Bing, is making inroads, and its usage will jump even more when it becomes the search provider for Yahoo, Google is--according to WIRED--routinely leaps & bounds beyond Microsoft when it comes to search refinements and enhancements.

Read the article for a whole bunch of examples there's no need for re-explain, but in essence, more than any other search engine, Google has mastered--yet continually improves--the ability to assume each searcher's intent, even when compound phrases can result in myriad possibilities.

Often, technical minutia is way over my head, but I found the article--and Google's unique genius--completely fascinating.