On a recruiting tour earlier this month, I visited Google for an “information session.” Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, said that the company mission was to make “all of the world’s information” accessible. He emphasized that the web was only a tiny fraction.
[Note for my safety: Google is SUPER secretive and made me sign an NDA and leave blood and hair sample, so if I stop blogging, please send the cops there]
So I poked around. They’re not kidding. Beyond the now-well-known Desktop Search, Google also has quietly launched Beta versions of Google Video (search videos from TV), Google Catalog (search print catalogs that aren’t in your mailbox), Google Scholar (search academic papers), and is in the process of scanning university libraries. Not to mention their recent acquisitions of Keyhole and Picasa (and Blogger, the software that powers THIS blog!).
I think that the rule of thumb for me is that anything that is publicly broadcast is great to archive for the public to search. The more I think about it though, the less excited I am about having Google (whose mission is to archive all of the world’s information) on my computer. I’m going to go uninstall the Desktop Search and I’m keeping Google (Picasa) away from my personal pictures…
joel
