Google and Search

As one who relies upon Google for searching and obtaining professional papers, I am not a general Google searcher, I was interested in Brad DeLong's brief on Google. He has hit upon a very powerful point, namely that any entity, Google included, always evolves, and if you are not careful it may evolve in the wrong direction.

Thus if one is searching for a product, one should go to Amazon, and they have almost anything from rabbits and mile, to well books and snow blowers. Will the utility of Amazon change, will they become too greedy to make the value they provide disappear, probably not too quickly, unless by pure arrogance, which so far they have managed to avoid quite well.

Now to the Google issue, a general search as DeLong observes, and as his reference also note, are trying to maximize income so the results are for the most part income generators. If on the other hand you search as I do by delimiting to edu sites and pdf documents, you can cut through a lot of the ads. It is not that from time to time that I use them, but what has happened is the Google is raising the user cost of access, the cost of the user filtering through all the junk, akin to the Yahoo screen, and thus if any alternative arises it would place Google at risk. A point noticed by DeLong. Customers are fickle things, that only sign I had behind my desk, "If all else fails listen to the customer!" has lasting merit.

Now what you cannot do readily on Google is the classic full text detailed search hat one could once do on Dialog, the database search company I used thirty plus years ago, an off shoot of Lockheed. It can morph somewhat in that direction but not quite. Perhaps Google should do two things, let off a bit on pushing ads and enhance the service with added features, even at a fee!