Mike Falick's Blog

Google Base: A Case Study in How to Go from Zero to $100 billion in 14 Months

It is being widely reported today that Google is about to launch a service to compete with eBay called Google Base.  Rumored to be a service that would allow users to sell items on Google.  It is also rumored that in conjunction with Google Base, a PayPal type service will be offered.

Google has gone from its IPO to be valued at $100 billion in 14 months.  At $100 billion, its market cap equals that of eBay and Yahoo combined.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a huge fan of Google because I believe it is a world-changing company.  For more, see these previous posts here and here.  Other bloggers have posted this screenshot:

Google Earth and the UFOs

Every once in a while, I run across something so odd that I feel I must share it.  This site overlays UFO data from National UFO Reporting Center on a Google Earth map.  This may be the strangest use of Google's interactive mapping technology yet.  Other sites have made perhaps more beneficial use of this technology like this site which provides accurate maximum flooding depths in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina, and this site which allows people affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita post information about the status of specific locations affected by the storms.  Interesting technology.

How Intelligent Searching Will Change the World

The current edition of eSchool News has a great article that describes "intelligent searching" through new technology for searching and navigating the internet.  I found this article interesting because I have been bookmarking the websites referred to in the article as well as several others that I find very useful.  As more and more information becomes accessible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection, Thomas Friedman's flattening of the planet will only accelerate.  (See my prior posts on Thomas Friedman here and here.)

Here are some of the websites I think are part of the rapid dissemination of information that are world-changers:

Google Suggest: As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time. This is similar to Google's "Did you mean?" feature that offers alternative spellings for your query after you search, except that it works in real time. For example, if you type "bass," Google Suggest might offer a list of refinements that include "bass fishing" or "bass guitar." Similarly, if you type in only part of a word, like "progr," Google Suggest might offer you refinements like "programming," "programming languages," "progesterone," or "progressive." You can choose one by scrolling up or down the list with the arrow keys or mouse.

Google Scholar: Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.