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This page updated -5 Sept. 2005
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About the Author
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Stephen E. Arnold
The Google Legacy
How Google's Internet Search is
Transforming Application Software
What kind of company is Google? The world mostly knows this
high-flying, publicly traded West Coast company as the upstart
that revolutionised search.
Wrong, says Stephen Arnold in this new ebook: Google is much
more. New, radical and overlooked, Google is this era's transformational
computing platform and could be about to unseat Microsoft from
its throne.
Google is not just about search: search is merely one application
you can load on its processor. Although Google has been releasing
a series of separate application programs, the company is starting
to assemble the mosaic pieces into a bigger picture. Its future
will be about leveraging its innovative hardware/software infrastructure.
In so doing, just as Microsoft replaced IBM, Google promises
to replace Microsoft as Network Computing comes of age.
Written for business readers, especially senior executives
of mid to large-sized, knowledge-based corporations, The Google
Legacy places Google under a microscope, dissects Google's
technology, evaluates its potential and determines that Google's
future lies beyond search. Three appendices provide lists of
Google patents, publishers who have indicated some type of relationship
with Google, and universities working with Google-information
that, according to the author, Google has sought to keep under
wraps.
". . . At Google, from its inception, Google software
and Google hardware have been tightly coupled," Arnold observes.
"Google is not a software company, nor is it a hardware
company. Google is, like IBM, a company that owes its existence
to both hardware and software. Unlike IBM, Google has a business
model that is advertiser supported. Technically, Google is conceptually
closer to IBM (at one time a hardware and software company) than
it is to Microsoft (primarily a software company) or Yahoo! (an
integrator of multiple softwares)."
Among the book's critical insights:
- Google's computing platform -- named the Googleplex by Arnold
after the name given by the company to its Mountain View headquarters
complex -- is a better (faster, cheaper and simpler to operate)
computer processor and operating system than systems now available
from competitors. Its price advantage is five or six to one over
other hardware. Massively parallelized and distributed, its processing
capability can be expanded indefinitely. As a virtual system
or network utility, the user simply faces no need for backup
or setup or restore.
- Google has re-coded Linux to meet its needs. This recoding
enables Google to deploy numerous current and future applications
-- 50 or more -- without degrading performance.
- Google products have the potential to be assembled into a
version of MS Office -- including word processing -- and many
other applications.
Such insights underpin Arnold's conclusions that if Google
can avoid or overcome certain pitfalls and hurdles, "Google
is poised to become the heir to Microsoft". The author sets
out these legal, management and marketing obstacles.
The book also identifies and explains a series of incremental
hardware and software innovations "not fully appreciated
by Google's competitors, analysts or users" that have given
Google its competitive edge. "The net of these advantages
is that Google does not have a search system. Google has a supercomputer
that delivers applications. Some of these applications are free
for the user; namely, search. Other applications are for Google's
4,000 employees; namely, the programmers who craft applications
for the Googleplex and employees who use the formidable number-crunching
capabilities of the Googleplex to figure out what users are doing,
how to maximize advertising revenue from billions of online clicks
in real time, and improve the search experience."
What is Google's legacy? Arnold clearly and eloquently defines
it at the end of the first chapter. He introduces the subject
by posing this question: "A young programmer in Beijing
or Bangkok is influenced by Google. If that programmer wakes
up one day and Google has disappeared, for what system will the
programmer develop?" Arnold then proceeds to provide the
answer.
The Google Legacy (Infonortics, Tetbury, England; September
2005). Available in online PDF download version only; US$180
/  145; 280 pages (including
annexes).
Contents
Preface
The Origin of the Monograph
The Premise of the Monograph
Google Could Be the Icarus of the Present Day
Thanks and Acknowledgments
Looking at Google from a Different Vantage Point
Chapter One: Google’s First Principles
Why Google May Fail
The Reality
Is Google the Next Microsoft?
The Virtual Application
PageRank
The Service Array in 2005
What Is Google?
Chapter Two: Google Basics
Google: Heir to Microsoft?
Google’s Modest Advantage: Lower Operating Costs
Google Basic Services
How Basic Is Google?
Chapter Three: Google Technology Sample Chapter
How Google Is Different from MSN and Yahoo
The Technology Precepts
Snapshots of Google Technology
Drawbacks of the Googleplex
Leveraging the Googleplex
Chapter Four: Google Relevance Ranking
and Search Engine Optimization
The Big Question
PageRank Factors
Tips for Improving the Google Ranking of a Web Site
Organic and Inorganic Traffic
Fusing Organic and Inorganic Search
Fraud: The Problem No One Wants to Discusses
Moving toward Yellow Pages Type Directory Listings
Google’s PageRank
The Factors in PageRank
Possible Google Algorithm Factors
Chapter Five: Gmail and Google Maps:
True Virtual Applications
Gmail: A Peak under the Bonnet
Google Maps
Rich, Interactive Virtual Applications
Next-Generation Google Virtual Applications
Chapter Six: Google Clustering: News
and Enhanced Search
Google’s Semi-Automated Newspaper
What does Google News Demonstrate?
Google: Maths and Metrics
A Closer Look at Clustering
Clustering Competition
Beyond Clustering
Chapter Seven: Google Print and Scholar
Google Print: A Closer Look
Google Scholar: The Next Dialog or LexisNexis?
Print and Scholar: Win, Draw, or Lose?
What If...?
Chapter Eight: Google: A New Force in
Enterprise Search
Focus on Simplicity
Google Quickly Built a Significant Customer Base
Future Seems Bright for Google’s Appliance
The Big Four Become the Big Five
Google Appliance Builds on a Strong Web Search Foundation
Customers May Find Gauging Product Costs a Challenge
Google Relies on Simplicity
Google Appliance: A Stealth Attack?
Version 4 Brings the Appliance to Parity with the Big Four
What’s on Tap With Version 5?
Google Shakes Up Enterprise Search Market
What’s Not to Like?
The Future of the Appliance
Chapter Nine: Google APIs: Netting Developers
What Can the Google Search API Do?
What Can APIs and Hacks Do?
Google and Web Services
The APIs and Hacks in Action
Google Alerts
The Google APIs and Third-Party Applications
Google Lets Developers Choose
The Legacy of the Google APIs and Google Hacks
Chapter Ten: Google Goes Personal
Is Privacy an Issue?
Google’s Data Mining
Google’s Privacy Policy
Google’s Licenses
Other Monitoring Opportunities: The Googleplex
Google Data Monitoring Opportunities
A Monitoring Engine
Google Data Mining Options
Chapter Eleven: The Google “Legacy”
Google’s Gift
Google Wallet: A Threat to eBay and Privacy?
Smart, Lucky, Both?
Enterprise Search as an Applications Delivery Platform
Google and For-Fee Content
Innovation Options at Google
Outlook 2005–2006
Appendix A: Patents
Appendix B: Google Publisher Partners
Appendix C: Google University Partners
Index
Size, price, availability
This publication is available in PDF (printable) form as a
website download (24.5 megabytes) only. There are approximately
290 pages of text. On receipt of the order form and payment,
purchasers will receive a password and access code to allow them
to download the PDF file for one-person use. © Copyright
and all applicable rights are the property of Infonortics Ltd.
Price for one-time download is US$180 or 145
euros. Passwords and access codes will be communicated via
email.
The authors and publisher reserve the right to change or update
the text of the publication at any time.
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