Ask Google

This has probably been obvious to Google for awhile, but an article in the New York Times today brought home the point to me that Google's search service isn't as much about returning web pages anymore as it is about answering questions.

The initial -- and important -- role of search engines was to make the tremendous bulk of web content findable. Without a link and without knowing an exact URL, a web page is invisible. Search engines still serve the purpose of returning web pages, of course, but over the past fifteen years, web users have grown accustomed to using search engines to find answers to questions.

For these cases, Google can skip the whole web search step and just answer the question. From the Times story: "Search for Barack Obama’s birthday or the local weather, for instance, and Google shows you the answer above search results." This process leaves other content providers out and keeps users on Google pages.

Harry Crane Takes the Night Off

I was watching Revolution on NBC last night because, well, I don't know, and this Google ad came on and creeped me out.





The father and daughter characters grow closer to each other to each other using Google products after the mom dies. It kind of reminded me of the Apple FaceTime promo video that showed people using sign language. A major and important difference between the two though is that the Apple video didn't reference some tragedy which had recently robbed the FaceTime users of their hearing.

Perhaps I was only turned off by this Google ad's heart-string-tugging because the characters on Revolution were, only minutes before, discussing a dead mom.

Even worse for Google, I think, was that mere minutes after their ad, a character on Revolution revealed that he had worked for Google and his $80 million savings was now worthless in their post-apocalyptic world. And this was part of a general message about over-reliance on technology.