John Joyce wrote:
> 
> On Jul 23, 2007, at 8:33 AM, Alex Young wrote:
> 
>> Felix Windt wrote:
>>>  > -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [mailto:znmeb / cesmail.net] Sent:
>>>> Monday, July 23, 2007 6:22 AM
>>>> To: ruby-talk ML
>>>> Subject: Re: Ruby Editor
>>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>> OK ... where does *Google's* money come from? The searches are free,
>>>> and most of their other "products" are as well.
>>>>
>>> An incomplete list:
>>> - Charge advertisers for presenting online "banner" ads to users
>>> - Collect marketing data on consumer habits, then selling the data or
>>> using
>>> it for targeted advertising.
>>
>>> - Charging websites to become listed
>>> - Charging websites for better placement in lists
>> I don't think they do these two, do they?
>>
>>> - Charging websites to purchase keywords for themselves
>>> - Charging other search engines to use their catalog
>>> AdSense is a huge, huge product.
>>
>> I guess the point is that Google probably *could* be an open source
>> company if it wanted.  The value in Google is in the brand and the
>> vast infrastructure investment (in which I include all their hired
>> brains).
>>
>> -- 
>> Alex
>>
> Google is not open source. The open source some software, but their core
> business is built around closed source search algorithms.
> Otherwise, everybody with enough money would implement the same tools.
> 
> 
> 
There's really nothing in their indexing/search algorithms that a bright
undergrad with a computer science *and* computational linear algebra
background couldn't re-invent. The key is they got there *first* and
built a huge server farm to make it work. Ideas are cheap -- thinking is
cheap -- knowing is cheap. It's actually *building* the stuff that's
required! If you *don't* build it, they *can't* come! :)