Is Google as good as it used to be?

I hate to be the party pooper, google is not as good as it used to be. Before you guys start sending out hate emails and posting hate comments on my Blog, let me say that Google.com is my HP and my default search engine. There is no undeniable fact there is nothing to beat the user interface of Google. Simple yet effective. But is the relevance of the search results, as good as it used to be. It has become too commercialized and prominence is given to paid links and revenue generating links and thus relevant links have to be searched through the results. I am not trying to compare google with any other search engine I am only comparing today's Google with what it used to be before it followed the commercial path. People, commerce rules the world i dont deny that, but i guess google is getting too commercial and is loosing focus of its core value something microsoft did in the 90s. Started developing on the fringes but left the core undeveloped.

Google maps agreed is simpler and nice interface but try searching for directions to street you know but sure of the apartment number for e.g. S. Mary avenue, sunnyvale to rodeo drive, los angeles. My good old Yahoo maps delivers the result, and what more i can save the searches i make so that next time around i can get it from a drop down list box. Another example of Google's excellent interface but low on utility.

What is so great about google video search. Yahoo introduced it before google and it is for the internet, unlike google which is right now restricted only to search through TV programs. Try searching for lost or lost abc in google video, you will hit hell a lot of paid programming sites. So what is great about archiving a video and doing speech recognition and then using the text database to run a time tested search algorithm on it. Ok it was not that simple as i wrote it but that is the basic outline of the process. On the other hand try searching for "rajini" ( yes namma thalaivar than) in yahoo video. Man i was impressed at the results, esp. from this japanese site which gave me Basha video clip. Thats it no more arguements, that single clip puts yahoo way on the top. :) Also if you are clever with turning safe search off in yahoo and looking for the right thing, well i say you have hit a jackpot. You now have an access to trillions and trillions of videos residing on the www. I mean do searches for "Nasa moon walk". ;)

Ok Gmail gave me 1 gig of space great, but at the cost of my privacy. Such a tool at the hands of the big brother who is always watching, man i find it creepy. Sometimes the ads that shows up in gmail made me wonder is some one really reading my emails. Esp one day i was complaining to my friend about how my research is going no where and i am frustrated and depressed. Next day i see an ad which says "Are you frustrated? Depressed? ". that was the last time i used gmail, didnt even complete that ad.

I am not glorifying any other search engine or portal, all I saying is Google can do much better than what it is doing now. For they are the real innovators, i some how get the feeling in their quest for money, they are lowering their true potential and resorting to cheap tactics. I am afraid 5 years down the line Google will just be another microsoft.

Naattamai Theerpu (from thalaivar): Kettu ponavanga nalla vazhalam ana nalla vazhthavanga kettu poga kudathu.