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Google Plans to Reveal Some of its Code
Andy Beal writes "According to Australia's The Age, Google plans to reveal some of the code it uses to great success. It says '
"The time has come for Google to "give something back", Wayne Rosing, the company's vice-president of engineering, told students while on a recruiting drive in Melbourne last week.
"There have been a lot of conversations in the company in the past two months about (how) . . . it's time for us to give something back. So our technical director, Craig Silverstein, has started a project to look at all the Google code and start figuring out what parts of it we want to give back," Rosing said.'"
We have heard so much talk recently about the "open sourcing" of this piece of software and that piece of software that I just don't know if we should believe any of it anymore.
While Google is probably telling more of a truth than Sun is how do we really know until we see the code?
If a team is now just determining which code should be released we may not see anything useful come of this for months or even more. How about we hold off on these stories until we see something more than just a press release.
I whole-heartedly support open source and I think it's great they're going to reveal some of their code, but I don't feel that Google owes the community anything; they already provide top quality services.
Google's done so much for the quality of web searching that I think they've already given us far more back than I could ever ask for. The only thing I could ask of them is to keep up the good work, and try and keep pagerank useful by stopping exploiters who falsely boost ranks. Other than that, some good old free thinking and continual innovation for the web, which is what they do all the time, is little to ask for. I just hope the momentum doesn't die.
- tristan
I'm sure google isn't stupid, but I'd hate for them to reveal anything that the search engine "optomizers" will leverage to further spam the search results.
I love Google, and think this is an excellent idea, but geeks owe Google, not vice-versa. Geeks (and normal users as well) depend on Google. While it could be said that Google does the same, and makes its money from geeks and users, they do not, IMHO owe us anything.
Bored? Why not join a decent mess
Could this be an extension of the google API set ?
http://www.google.com/apis/
Co-inciding with a launch of gmail, this could lead to a slew of advanced 3rd party gmail apps like 'pop goes the gmail'
Seriuosly folks, they probaly make me 30% more effective because I can find the information I need more quickly than anyplace else.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
The actual source surely isnt actually *that* important. It might have been way back in the beginning, but not so much anymore.
..."
I'm quite convinced that the code itself is relatively simple, each node handling its own small piece of the puzzle.
It would take years before anyone actually making use of the code could build up the infrastructure and reputation that google has got, in the meantim,e we could make some seriously funky projects out of it.
I would love to be able to incroporate google search algorythms and procedures into (for instance) an SQL query, and allow searching of the myriad of OFFLINE data we have here.
"select (feeling_lucky) from customerrecords
At the very worst, the code becomes an academic curiosity, at the best, googles algorythm becomes as well adapted as Huffman coding or the bubblesort.
liqbase
I'm guessing the answers are "no" and "no". SEOs (search engine exploiters) would only damage google if google gave out their source code for pagerank. And each change to pagerank has been accompanied with much speculation in the SEO community about what the change was, with lots of graphs and experiments and gnashing of teeth. So no, I'm pretty sure we never have and never will see the source for PageRank.
Well it is common knowledge that they run their system off of (lots and lots of) Linux servers. So maybe that is what they mean by "give back"
Home Automation & Linux -- now I know I'm a geek
I totally disagree. I think the GoogleFS is a much more valuable commodity than the search algos. I mean, frankly, I doubt think the search algos are that brilliant, past the initial lightbulb of PageRank... just refinements and optimizations. The tough part is harnessing the -insane- computing power necessary to serve the world's searching needs, and doing it cheaply.
Despite that, I do hope you're right, and maybe you are... since the distributed FS/OS they've developed is, like I said, so much more valuable. What good would search algorithm descriptions do anyone except aid their competition? I can't stick Google's algorithms into anything I have... but a nifto OS that can combine a few computers and let me run stuff across them trivially? -THAT'S PRETTY COOL-
Please describe any search algorithm that could possibly have any reliance whatsoever on running on top of a linux kernel. Go ahead, try it.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
"Is there anything Google can't do? Seriously, how cool is that?"
Just about as cool as when Apple, Sony, and even Microsoft (with restrictions) released some of their code. It's nothing new -- companies do it all the time for good PR and to help jumpstart initiatives. Question is, what code are they going to release, how much and when?
Google doesn't have to give anything back, at least not to me. It's enough for me that they are by far the best search engine; lightning fast, accurate, comprehensive, free and with no obtrusive advertising...
It's a lot like slashcode, really. Lots of great websites run slash, but none of them have the popularity or following that the original has.
Plus, Slashdot gets to "brand" websites with it's look, feel, and system. No matter how much you skin slashcode, it still feels like slashdot in the end, even if it wasn't intentional.
Read the slashdot FAQ, and you see exactly the same kind of response you would expect. Good luck making your own with just the source!
As make extensive use of linux, might I suggest that they include a tiny picture with the text "Google is powered by linux" with the search results? Maybe at the bottom, where you can't barely see it... but it will be enough to raise linux visibility a lot, if google users (i.e.: every internet user) realizes that linux is powerful enough for google.
My journal. Mainly about freedom.
After reading through this article about the fall of the Win32 API, I think Google may be doing something a bit more clever than simply 'giving back'.
The article discusses how the plethora of APIs Microsoft is shipping and uncertainty of just when the APIs will be on real hardware have caused new development to move to the web (for example, building a new email client). It also mentions there are several drawbacks to web programming, but the author expects them to be overcome soon, further sapping the appeal of the Win32 API.
Perhaps this is exactly Google's strategy. How better to further enhance the desireability of web programming versus desktop programming than by demonstraiting in source how to perform some really compelling features? How many developers will take these techniques and use them at the heart of new killer apps; apps that run on any web browser rather than locked to a specific API?
Google may be giving a small bit away, but the potential gains in mindshare among developers may be much, much greater than the loss of this already paid for source code. Further, if the code in question relies on a particular technology, protocol or standard they are well versed in, they have succeeded in enticing developers to play in their sandbox.
Quite clever, really.