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Google sells ads on the basis of how many eyeballs it attracts, but if most owners of said eyeballs never buy anything mentioned in those ads, then is a $300+ stock price for Google shares sustainable?

Consult the book of Armaments! (sorry. just popped out)

I would like to question the validity/implications of 4, 6, and 7. As we all know search efficacy has been taken to new levels by Google; and Inktomi/Yahoo! and MSN are not slacking off either. I wonder if you are implicitly questioning the limitations of the ranking algorithms used by these companies. As the amount of information increases by leaps and bounds, the total quantum of search results for a particular phrase will keep increasing proportionally. But I would suppose the key challenge is to rank order the search result — after all, how many people go beyond the first few pages of any search result?

Put another way, would their ever be a real need to sift through information that is ranked beyond the top 50, or, would a person be better off refining the query to zero-in more effectively on what was sought. I believe it is the latter; hence the amount of information should not affect the quality of refined queries. But yes, refined queries will be increasingly needed to substitute coarse and aggregate ones.

I contend that this is an “intellectual” cost. It will be simplifed for the masses if leading edge companies can provide intuitive means to elicit query refinement. i.e., an important question is how the search companies could provide artifacts beyond the existing ones to allow users to phrase their queries better and obtain exactly what they seek. Google for one has done tremendously well on such aspects. Google suggest completes search phrases before they are completed (offering suggestions), the “:” prefixes are extremely handy and work very effectively, the seamless carry over of context to news, images, local etc. are so convenient. I don’t know if I am missing your point Atanu, but I reckon that bright engineers have hit upon very good metaphors to enable searching for exactly what you seek. I grant that these tools can be expanded upon, and are taken for granted by the programming savvy; if and how the larger population can effortlessly imbibe these skills depends on the user interface exposed and the rate of exposure (so as to not intimidate the consumer base).

Another question is whether people in general have communication skills to express exactly what they seek. It is very instructive to look at some of the results on Google Answers and look at what the experts searched on to provide the answer. People seem to be all over the spectrum when it comes to the ability to express their needs smartly and succinctly. As with most things in life, yet again, we realize the 80-20 rule

Finally, would you have any stats or thoughts on what proportion of the growth of the information is on largely “new” topics and how much represents “accretive” bloat? This is surely an ill-formed question because the definition of ‘new’ and ‘accretive’, in this context, are themselves fuzzy.

[Disclaimer: I don't work for a search company, and may be demonstrating gross ignorance of progress in the area].

As a citizen lambda, I depend on the commentary of literature critics taking that I have confidence in their writings.For the rest , one relies on collaborative filtering as TTG puts it.I am waiting for the heaven sent ultimate Filter.
Anyway it’s good to hear about Niels Bohr and Heisenberg.