The Future of Search Engines

Commercialization of information search has the opportunity to change dramatically over the next few years. With more and more search engines being developed, who really knows which ones will be around over the next few years. One thing that seems certain is that Google will not be going away, rather it will be expanding. How and how long are really the main questions here. Google was unsuccessful in trying to buy out Yahoo. However, this was only the beginning for Google. Over the next few years I think that Google will try to buy smaller search engines in order to make Google one of the few games in town. Then by adding new features to Google, the search engine will slowly weed out the other competition or buy them out. While this may be quite a few years down the road, in the short term, I believe that Google is already working on this.

The Google Library project was set in to play in order to allow Google users to have full access to books. The way it works is that Google partnered with libraries scanning in as many books as possible. This is great for users because they would not have to go to the library. Instead, they could just type the book in and the entire full text would be shown instead of just a small portion. There is one major flaw with this idea though, and that is copyright laws. Putting books that are still copy written on the website would be infringement. The case went to court and a settlement was reached. In summary, Google will be allowed to put books up on the website. However, they must charge a registration fee for users to be allowed to access the site. In return, they must pay 70% of their profits to the companies the books come from. So for now, we need to just wait and see what Google does and it this site ever really does get launched.

There is one major downfall to Google’s plan. While being the only major game in town is great for business, they are probably going to run in to monopoly issues. They are also probably going to have many more legal battles ahead of them. It is one thing to think and dream big but it is another to actually follow through with it. Dealing with many of the laws that are in the way of the company is something that needs to take some deep consideration. However, I still believe that Google will find a way around these laws or create new ideas to make them even stronger.

One of these ideas is the developmental program that will allow “deep web” accessible. The deep web is a more involved type of search engine that basically cuts out all the work the user would have to do in order to find exactly what they are looking for. It also always access to certain government, business, and university databases. A site called Turbo10 has already done this. If Google became a deep web search engine, whether through mergers or development, they would be that much closer to being the only search engine needed.