"My dream has always been to build a 'Star Trek' computer," Google Fellow Amit Singhai tells the camera in the company's latest promotional video, "The Evolution of Search."
"In my ideal world, I would be able to walk up to a computer and say, 'Hey, what is the best time for me to sow seeds in India given that monsoon season was early this year?' "
And what I'm thinking is, "Wait … what? Google can't do that now?"
In the 14 years since it was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University, Google has grown so ubiquitous, so understanding of our search wants — if not our needs — that it's weird when someone points out something Google can't do.
As Louis CK said of technology in 2009, "Maybe we need some time where we're walking around with a donkey with pots clanging on the sides, because everything's amazing now and nobody's happy."
Certainly, for journalist types and hardcore info geeks in general, there are alternative info-seeking tools — Quora, Blogdigger and Omgili to name a very few — each tailored to the specific bit of info you need. For all manner of general info however — from checking our spelling to checking out the aerial view of a crush's place of residence — Google is the first place we go.
How weird it is to hear Google's Singhai talk about a time when Google News didn't exist — and that it was Sept. 11, 2001 when he and other members of the Google team realized they weren't good enough.
"When Sept. 11 happened, we as Google were failing our users," Singhai says. "Our users were searching for 'New York Twin Towers,' and our results had nothing relevant related to the sad events of the day because our index was crawled a month earlier and of course there was no news in that index."
How weird it is to hear any tech giant admit it wasn't good enough? In the short run, Google placed links to news sites on its home page, and in the long run, Google News came to be.
"The Evolution of Search" covers more of Google's growth, and by proxy, that of the Internet, in little more than six minutes that say a lot about how far Google's come, and how much we take for granted.
More on the annoying way we live now:
- 'Feeling lucky' is Google doodle shortcut
- Google Music: Fast syncing, free songs
- 50 viral videos spoiled in four minutes
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.
