By Will Sturgeon, 19 September 2005 18:30
NEWS Mike Lynch, founder and CEO of Autonomy, has accused Google of dumbing-down user expectations of search functionality, arguing there is far more to it than simply typing a word in a box and hitting 'enter'.
Lynch said companies such as his own have moved on from such notions and that discerning users are looking for far more than keyword searches.
Lynch told silicon.com: "We're starting to see an appetite for second-generation technologies. There is no point in trying to out-Google Google."
As such Lynch said he is more intent on developing broader capabilities for search which will see users searching the content of phone calls and television programmes, as well as far more intuitive network searches within the enterprise.
He told silicon.com that Google will struggle to break into this area, even if its consumer offering will remain strong and added that internet search will "become commoditised".
"The important thing is to understand what Google does. Google is very successful at internet search. And when we talk about internet search we're talking about typing one or two words into a blank box," said Lynch.
"Google has very little impact on our end of the market. The one thing it has done is dumb-down how people search, which is a shame."
Lynch said users are still doing too much legwork for Google, searching with simple terms and then clicking through the hundreds or thousands of results returned looking for the content which best matches their needs.
"Say I'm interested in the effect of oil pollution on the penguin population of Alaska," said Lynch. "Although that's the idea someone is looking for they will walk up to a search engine and type 'penguin'."
"They would never walk up to a librarian and just say 'penguin' and that's the Google effect. We've been trained to assume the search engine is dumb and that takes a little un-training in enterprise."
Read the full interview with Mike Lynch, founder of Autonomy, here.
Comments
There are 21 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
no penguins live in Alaska - they're only in the Antarctic. talk about dumbing down.........
2. Jack Allan
Google is great. Just because you don't know how to use its advanced features doesn't mean it doesn't have any. Blaming Google for the litracy level of computer users is like blaming the inablility of the average Joe to make fire on a cigarette lighter manufacturer.
3. anonymous
dude, why would i search for penguin??
try this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=effect+of+oil+pollution+on+the+penguin+population+of+Alaska&btnG=Google+Search
4. anonymous
Tough luck, Mike, there are no Penguins in Alaska
5. Used to Like a certain chocolate buscuit
To summarise the whole thing the autonomy boss has stated he does not know how to use the advanced services of Google. If he could do so he would be able to establsih there are no penguins in Alaska.
Unlike one of the anonymous contributors he would most likely stumble upon numerous references to the many speices of Penguins that live in places other than Antrctica such as South America and New Zealand
6. Dan Cooper
Penguins don't live in Alaska so you wouldn't find anything on the effect of oil pollution on penguins. Unless someone went mad with a can of Castrol down Anchorage Zoo of course.
7. anonymous
does he mean the birds or the chocolate biscuits?
(not sure if they are sold outside the uk)
8. Capt. Oates
..which just goes to prove the effect of oil pollution!
9. Iain Buchanan
I dont want my searching to be over filtered by the search engine. I like the element of surprise sometimes. I think that this guy is talking about pushing data at us i.e. commercial stuff. Google allows for some sophisticated searching any way.
10. Graham J Marriott
In search engines one can use quotation marks to band words together. One is also supposed to be able to use + before words. So you could use "Oil polution" +penguins.
Mark you I have tried qualifying and the search engines still seem pretty dumb. And still tend to give you nnnnn answers many of them just containing the word penguin.
Oh for an intelligent search engine
11. anonymous
Lynch's comment is fatuous, assuming that people don't use Google to search on phrases. If they don't that is a user error, not a flaw in Google as such.
Interestingly, if you just cut and paste his phrase about penguin populations into Google, it does produce relevant and interesting results.
Whilst there is room to improve all searches, he's going to have to find a more substantial argument that that!
12. Jay C
It's not how many boxes there are, its how one used them.
Simplicity rocks
13. Doug Jackson
It is sad when the example he cites of "The effect of oil pollution on the penguin population" when typed into the google search bar returns "http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/antarctica.html" as the third hit. (The first two are links to this source article....
14. Theodore
You're missing the point – the search box isn't the only way to find information – once upon a time the only way to start a car was by turning the handle on the front. They'll come a time when we won't need to search proactively anymore and we'll get what we need delivered to us – office docs, videos, whatever
15. anonymous
This is a load of rubbish – Google works because it is scalable and behind it sits proven technology. Take a look at Autonomy’s attempt at video web search at http://www2.blinkx.com/overview.php IT DOESNT WORK. I was looking for news footage the other day and it spat out a whole load of irrelevant answers and even some pornography. Just shows that Autonomy’s speech to text doesn’t work.
16. anonymous
Before having a pop at Google Mike Lynch should take a long deep look at his so-called ‘superior’ technology. It makes me angry that so many people put such weight in what he says when it comes to search because the Autonomy technology blatantly doesn’t work. At least when I enter something into Google it returns me some kind of result, as opposed to the shiny ‘Autonomy IDOL’ server (or just bone IDLE as we came to call it) which was installed at our company, which wouldn’t even work. It was a pig. Google can handle thousands of quieries per second, IDOL server cannot seemingly even handle one.
I think a lot of people have fallen for the Autonomy hype when questions must be asked as to how good their technology actually is. I have CTO friends who are stuck with an Autonomy licence for a box that doesn’t work, where are the successful deployments? Are there any? You have to ask the question of a company that doesn’t seem to be making money despite the number of acquisitions they have made lately. Who cares about penguins Mr Lynch, you are costing a lot of us money with something that doesn’t work.
17. Keith Guthrie
type [oil pollution on the penguin population] into google and what do you get?
Why would you just type in Penguin - who is he trying to kid!
18. Grant Otto
Face it – search is changing and the days of just typing words into a box are numbered. Down the line we won't be typing things into the query box anymore, we'll be getting alerts to the stuff we need to know no matter where it is or what it is – sounds like quite a lot of companies have got it already
19. anonymous
As if we didn't have enough Apple and Linux zealots in the world, we've now got Google zealots getting upset at the slightest criticism of their beloved search engine.
20. Steve Oliver
Astonishingly stupid comment Mr. Lynch. If I wanted to search for "the effects of oil pollution on the penguins of Alaska" on Google, I'd be pretty darned stupid to put "penguin". No, I'd put "penguin Alaska oil pollution" and I'd get relevant results which would include the information that there is an absence of penguin in Alaska. I know HOW to advanced search but I don't need to, and that is the brilliance of Google. You can only wish Mr. Lynch...!
21. Steve Oliver
Anonymous Systems Analyst from Norway... you have completely missed the point!