Friday, October 06, 2006
Search: Innovation Vs. Inertia
The article in BusinessWeek about the search market skims the surface of the search engines who are distinguishing themselves from Google by offering visual, social, or topic searches.Despite the alternatives, Google continues to grow stronger, but that won't be the case indefinitely. Today Google is dominant because it is simple, familiar, and a pretty good algorithm. But some part of me has to be believe that Google's page-rank system is not close to the best we'll ever see.
It's hard to believe that they hit the magic formula more than a decade ago, and that's the end of the story. Every interface for acquiring information undergoes evolution or sometimes revolution, and search is no different. Whether it's controlling your cable TV or organizing email, the way we work with information always gets better, and some derivation of the current Google alternatives will likely take hold.
On the other hand, inertia is powerful in retaining an audience (just ask AOL). Consumers are used to the search results paradigm, and getting them to change habits is about as easy as getting someone to quit smoking. Inertia will allow Google to remain atop the industry long after improved search technology arrives, but the company can't take users for granted and will have to continue its substantial investment in R&D.
Posted By John Gartner at 10:47 AM
Permanent Link: Search: Innovation Vs. Inertia
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