Google Information

Some good links on Google:

• Webmaster World forum :: A forum with lots of google talk going on, along with other web related forums.
• Google Watch :: A look at how Google’s monopoly, algorithms, and privacy policies are undermining the Web.
• Google Guy Says :: A collection of forum posts made by a Googly employee. Straight from the horses mouth.
• Google Weblog :: another listing of news about Google.
• Google Alert :: runs daily Google searches for you and emails you whenever new results appear.
• Google NewsAlerts are sent by email when news articles appear online that match the topics you specify.
• Google Zeitgeist - Search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google
• Advanced News Search is a brilliant research tool.
• Google Calculator allows queries in plain english.
• Add your URL to Google
• Google Groups :: Post and read comments in Usenet discussion forums.
• Google Toolbar :: Take the power of Google with you anywhere on the web.
• Labs.google.com :: Google’s technology playground.
• TouchGraph GoogleBrowser :: This is just amazing…
• Slashdot: Google Blocks ‘Optimized’ Pages
• Slashdot: Fortune Magazine On Google Growing Up :: Fortune Magazine runs a pretty long story on Google, but instead of the usual exultation over PageRank algorithm and Larry-and-Sergey biographies, we get a different message - is Google growing up, and is trouble brewing at Google?

Update: A must read article about Google. The most insightful article yet about the company:

Google is a company that has built a single very large, custom computer. It’s running their own cluster operating system. They make their big computer even bigger and faster each month, while lowering the cost of CPU cycles. It’s looking more like a general purpose platform than a cluster optimized for a single application.

While competitors are targeting the individual applications Google has deployed, Google is building a massive, general purpose computing platform for web-scale programming.

This computer is running the world’s top search engine, a social networking service, a shopping price comparison engine, a new email service, and a local search/yellow pages engine. What will they do next with the world’s biggest computer and most advanced operating system?
>> Topix.net: The Secret Source of Google’s Power

More of the same:

Google isn’t worried about Yahoo! or Microsoft’s search efforts…although the media’s focus on that is probably to their advantage. Their real target is Windows. Who needs Windows when anyone can have free unlimited access to the world’s fastest computer running the smartest operating system? Mobile devices don’t need big, bloated OSes…they’ll be perfect platforms for accessing the GooOS. Using Gnome and Linux as a starting point, Google should design an OS for desktop computers that’s modified to use the GooOS and sell it right alongside Windows ($200) at CompUSA for $10/apiece (available free online of course). Google Office (Goffice?) will be built in, with all your data stored locally, backed up remotely, and available to whomever it needs to be (SubEthaEdit-style collaboration on Word/Excel/PowerPoint-esque documents is only the beginning). Email, shopping, games, music, news, personal publishing, etc.; all the stuff that people use their computers for, it’s all there.

Even though everyone’s down on Google these days, they remain the most interesting company in the world and I’m optimistic about their potential and success (while also apprehensive about the prospect of using Google for absolutely everything someday…I’ll be cursing the Google monopoly in 5 years time). If they stay on target with their plans to leverage their three core assets (which, if Gmail is any indication, they will), I predict Google will be the biggest and most important company in the world in 5-8 years.
>> Kottke.org: GooOS, the Google Operating System