What is Google up to?

[powerarmour]

Well, I can say I spent a sad hour of my day today trying to remove the most amount of Google desktop crap I've ever seen on an office machine...

Why do folks install that rubbish..?, Google Desktop, Google Toolbar, Google Camera in Your Back Garden, Google Toilet Cleaner, Google Spy Robot Cat, Google Back Scratcher, Google Bread Maker, and so on and so forth...

[Seawolf]

Because they trust Google, I guess. I respect what they've done well, but enduser software just isn't among their greatest achievements.

[impar]

Greetings!

[impar]

Greetings!

Google spotlights data center inner workings

The inner workings of Google just became a little less secret.

The search colossus has shed only occasional light on its data center operations, but on Wednesday, Google fellow Jeff Dean turned a spotlight on some parts of the operation. Speaking to an overflowing crowd at the Google I/O conference here on Wednesday, Dean managed simultaneously to demystify Google a little while also showing just how exotic the company's infrastructure really is.

On the one hand, Google uses more-or-less ordinary servers. Processors, hard drives, memory--you know the drill.

On the other hand, Dean seemingly thinks clusters of 1,800 servers are pretty routine, if not exactly ho-hum. And the software company runs on top of that hardware, enabling a sub-half-second response to an ordinary Google search query that involves 700 to 1,000 servers, is another matter altogether.

Google doesn't reveal exactly how many servers it has, but I'd estimate it's easily in the hundreds of thousands. It puts 40 servers in each rack, Dean said, and by one reckoning, Google has 36 data centers across the globe. With 150 racks per data center, that would mean Google has more than 200,000 servers, and I'd guess it's far beyond that and growing every day.

[impar]

Greetings!

Google's biggest threat? Itself

Search giant's CEO talks about how the company plans to overcome the challenges it faces.

[impar]

Greetings!

The GOOG->MSFT Exodus: Working at Google vs. Working at Microsoft

Recently I’ve been bumping into more and more people who’ve either left Google to come to Microsoft or got offers from both companies and picked Microsoft over Google. I believe this is part of a larger trend especially since I’ve seen lots of people who left the company for “greener pastures” return in the past year (at least 8 people I know personally have rejoined) . However in this blog post I’ll stick to talking about people who’ve chosen Microsoft over Google.

[impar]

Greetings!

Why Google has lost its mojo

Google went from startup to behemoth in record time. But there are increasing signs that Google has become just another fat, happy, and even arrogant company, no longer the lean, industry-changing giant of the past. And that spells good news for Microsoft.

[impar]

Greetings!

Google's Android platform: not so open after all

Google vowed that its Linux-based Android mobile platform would empower enthusiasts and amateur developers, but today we have seen compelling evidence that this is an empty promise. Third-party Android application developers, who have grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of SDK updates, were shocked to discover that Google has been secretly making new versions of the Android SDK available to the Android Developer Challenge (ADC) finalists under non-disclosure agreements.

[impar]

Greetings!

Warning: Google is becoming Microsoft's evil twin

During its year of jousting with Microsoft, Google learned a lot from the software giant. Too bad it picked up Redmond's bad behaviors -- behaviors that are bad for both IT and the public at large.

The Google we all think we know is a kind, innovative, positive force. And because Google was the un-Microsoft, we have better tools for search, better platforms for e-commerce, and a whole new world of Web 2.0 applications.

But now it appears that Sergey Brin and the gang that will do no harm have learned the worst possible lesson from Microsoft: build a monopoly and they will come -- because they have to.

[impar]

Greetings!