Google "Puffin" Takes On Microsoft

Many have speculated that when Microsoft enters the search engine business (its Longhorn Search is expected to arrive in 2005), the software giant will blow rivals Google and Yahoo out of the water. I disagree. Microsoft's core skillset and knowledge-base has developed around desktop software. That's how it saw off Netscape in the "browser wars", despite its opponent's massive head-start -- a browser, after all, is just another desktop application. A search engine is a qualitatively different beast. A senior expert at Microsoft last year reportedly conceded that search is the most difficult real-world computer science problem anyone has ever faced, before announcing that Longhorn Search would take longer to develop than anticipated. Google has been tackling that computer science problem with a team of 60+ out-and-out computer scientists (its much-vaunted PhD graduates) for over five years now. Other major search engines are, if a comparative study reported widely today is to be believed, not far behind. Another advantage that Microsoft's Longhorn search will offer users, claim the analysts, is the ability to search the contents of their hard drives. I have always been a little dubious of this proposition, since Windows users can already search their hard drives using the "search" option in their start menu. Presumably the new technology will provide a more sophisticated solution ... but do users really need a more sophisticated solution? In any case, Google has clearly moved to counteract this potential advantage by developing a desktop search application of its own. Codenamed "Puffin", details of the project were indicated in the second of two recent leaks -- or PR stunts? -- from the company (see my previous entry). I believe that desktop search is a red herring. As an intensive user, I don't see much value in it. On the other hand -- and I believe the "experts" have overlooked this -- a desktop search application that becomes popular could easily be extended, as I have suggested in the past, to become a peer-to-peer search engine. Now that's something worth getting excited about.

Comments

7 comments

Seun Osewa / May 26, 2004 8:46 PM / #

Why exactly should we be excited about a peer-to-peer search engine? Just like personalized search, I just fon't get it!

Michael Heraghty / May 27, 2004 10:39 AM / #

Why, exactly, do we get excited about "regular" web search engines?

Part of Google's success is due to its having the largest index of pages. To build on this success, it is increasingly trying to find and make available other types of content on the web -- PDF files, SWF files, etc.

The same general principle applies when you extend this into information that's not actually on the web, but is available via the internet by virtue of the fact that it is on a PC that is connected.

The more you can search, the more you can find.

Seun Osewa / May 27, 2004 4:51 PM / #

What sort of information do you think could be of value on a connected PC? If users have to choose which information to share, can't they just in the same time have it uploaded to the web?

Can you give a specific example where peer-to-peer searching provides an advantage? Being specific clears a lot of disagreements fast!

Michael Heraghty / May 27, 2004 5:13 PM / #

[quote]can't they
just in the same time have it uploaded to the web?[/quote]

That's the whole point, Seun. Uploading to the web is difficult (perhaps not for you, but for the average internet user), time-consuming, and costly (hosting space may be cheap, but it's not free).

What if I just decided to make folder x on my system searchable by other users (which would in turn confer "privileges" on me as a searcher, allowing me access to other such folders on other hard drives)?

As for examples, I can't believe you're being so pedantic/unimaginative, but here goes...

An mp3 file of any of the tracks on the demo album made by Toasted Heretic.

An MS Word discussion document that I know exists (because I once had it but deleted it), pertaining to a new technology development in Galway, Ireland, which was widely circulated by email, but which I can't find on the web.

Any image file that comes up for a search on "Heraghty" (... well, out of curiosity. Google image search doesn't return very much on this.)

Etc. Etc.

Seun Osewa / May 29, 2004 6:29 AM / #

I'd like to take your points one by one:

Hosting space for e-mail has been made free by google; hosting space for other searchable file types can also be made essentially free (if it's searchable, it's adsense-able :-P)

If hosting space is made essentially free, then uploding to the web can be made very easy too: click a button, say, on google's desktop tool to upload your document to google servers. they might call it 'instant publishing'. They might generate pages that link to the uploaded files and put adsense ads on them.

If a music company releases a demo CD and they make it avaliable in electronic format, it will be available on their website, and google can see it. If not, they probably don't want people ripping their music and putting it on the web for all to download, and even then it's not particularly difficult with our magic 'publish to google' button.

The MS-word document you were talking about, chances are that you deleted it because -you- -did- -not- want people to read it, anymore. If you wanted people to read it, again, you could use the same 'publish to web' button.

Or what do you think?

Michael Heraghty / June 1, 2004 5:27 PM / #

Seun,

I don't buy the one-click publishing idea. It sounds like a lot of hassle; the content owner has to individually upload (and wait, while doing so!!) every piece of content they want to make searchable.

A Google peer-to-peer search app would require no uploading or publishing. Just switch it on or don't -- or, for precision, specify which drives/folders/files to make "public".

The audio track I mentioned is from a demo album, and was never owned by any record company. But it was widely available here in Ireland in cassette format in the 1990s.

As for the Word document, I deleted it accidentally, which is precisely why I want to find it again.

Bryan / July 22, 2004 3:22 AM / #

I think a awesome concept would be the abillity to simultaneously search 1.your hard drive 2.your network(remotely shared files) 3.Your E-mail box 4.Usenet 5.p2p file sharing and 6. the web AT THE SAME TIME making full use of your broadband connection to find the info you need. also brea that list of sources down into a way of viewing it that would be easy and time-saving.
That, that is the Holy Grail people...

mediajunk