Tag Archives: Google

IT changing the world VS. The world changing IT

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We are at an inflection point for IT. Think about the following:

  • 10-20 years ago people had the best computer at work, the best printer and even a mobile phone! Today we see the exact opposite, a personal phone is better than the work phone. People use the latest communication tools like Google, Facebook, G+, Twitter etc.
  • On their personal lives people access their data from anywhere using all sorts of devices. People use every available tool to pass their message across and contact their friends. This change is unstoppable, IT is being “consumerized”.

The questions are: “how are companies taking advantage of these new trends while keeping company data secure?”. It´s not all about having a BYOD* policy and insuring it’s secure. People changed the way they work and the world is different. We realised that we work better together, that great ideas and great solutions come from groups.

Unfortunately I see that at work several people feel locked, unhappy and unproductive.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein

I see companies every day with this problem and helping them to adopt a better and more productive way of working is what I like to do the most :)

*Bring your own device

 

Improve Ranking

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Several people ask me how to improve ranking of their Websites. Often I tend to send them to this Google 101 article. That is what you should have in mind if you are developing a site and want to understand how Google crawls it.

However, when developing it is important that you understand what you should and should not do in order to respect the organic results. Here they are, The Webmaster Guidelines. By following these guidelines, you will help Google to find, index and Rank your Site and avoid unnecessary problems.

Don’t forget your Sitemap and if you want to know more about SEO don’t miss out this article where you can download Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide!

I hope these light articles will help you to understand more about Google WebSearch in particular and SEO.

Have a nice day :)

Google (light) tech overview and The life of a Google query

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“What happens after you press the button ‘Google Search’?”. People ask me this question often and here is a short version of what I found online in Google.com pages as, to be honest, I have no extra insight on this.

First it is important to undestand how Google approached the ‘problem’.

 

  •  (1) Developed the serving infrastructure 

Search engines prior to Google’s ran off in a bunch of large servers that often got stuck or slowed terribly under peak loads. Google decided that instead of large servers it was important  to have smaller and employed linked several PCs to quickly find each query’s answer.  This allowed Google to build a cheaper and scalable infrastructure plus faster response times. Of course, the large majority of SE work this way nowadays. 

 

  • (2)  breakthrough PageRank™ technology that changed the way searches are conducted.

Google PageRank simple

The software behind the ‘search’  conducts several simultaneous calculations requiring only a fraction of a second. Again, Google went further in their SE concept. Traditional search engines relied heavily on how often a word appears on a web page.  Google uses more than 200 signals, including the patented PageRank™ algorithm, “to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important”. After hypertext-matching analysis is conducted to determine witch pages are important based on the user query. This combination of PageRank e and query-specific relevance, Google ranks and displays the pages to the users.

The link provided previously has more info on PageRank Technology and Hypertext-Matching Analysis. I personally like the also the information on PageRank available here.

 

See below the Life of a Google Query in one image and less than 0.5 seconds :)

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The PigeonRank from Google

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PigeonRank from Google

I decided to post about Google Technology around the 1st of April of 2002 (more than 6 years ago!) As explained in the official page it was a revolucionary method of indexing. By collecting flocks of pigeons in dense clusters, Google was able to process search queries at speeds superior to traditional search engines, which typically rely on birds of prey, brooding hens or slow-moving waterfowl to do their relevance rankings.

It is important to say that the technology back them was already very good but PigeonRank’s success relied primarily on the superior train-ability of the domestic pigeon (Columba livia) and its unique capacity to recognize objects regardless of spatial orientation. The common gray pigeon can easily distinguish among items displaying only the minutest differences, an ability that enables it to select relevant web sites from among thousands of similar pages.

You can read all about it in the page I mentioned before because PigeonRank helped the internet to be what it is today!

Being Googley :)

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People often ask me: What is being Googley? Only Google employees are Googley?

In my opinion the first and important statement is:

Being Googley doesn’t necessarily mean working for Google. Being Googley is a concept.. A way of life.

It is true that it started with the the Google Culture, but I believe that it goes far beyond that. Is something that you can take home.

Part of being Googley is reflected in this sentence in the Google book `do well by doing good’. It applies while you are working but also on your personal life. It is about being friendly towards others, it is about tolerance towards different cultures and points of view. Acting Googley is doing something positive and meaningful, is going the ‘extra mile’ to improve how things work. It can be a process or a workflow or even contributing for the life of someone that lives far away and you never saw before.

Aiming for average, a passive attitude towards problems or giving up on a difficult situation is not Googley. A positive and constructive attitude will do you much better and help the world to become a better place for us all.

It is true that sometimes is not easy to overcome problems but being creative and responsible is part of being Googley.

“Googley”… “googliness” is aiming for a better life, aiming to make things easier and better for everyone, including yourself!

I do believe that it could change the world and it is a concept that each person has the right to describe and act and develop according to their beliefs and possibilities…

Edit (one more sentence): – As a company, “to fully understand Google, it’s helpful to understand all the ways in which the company has helped to redefine how individuals, businesses and technologists view the Internet”. Here is the Google Philosophy.