1. The World of Google What’s the impact of Google? Was Google lucky or smart? What were some of the big ideas that made Google successful? What would you have done differently (even with perfect hindsight)? Is it all about the (Web) advertising?

2. A New Business Model Bill Gross - Lifelong entrepreneur making computing easier - Magellan, the PC search app - Knowledge Adventure - IdeaLab GoTo.com / Overture - Search matters in a world of Portals - Not about any kind of traffic on your site

3. Ads really comes to the Web Portals sites with banner ads - Lots of views, but not much relevance or clicks Matching query terms mostly with content - Less relevance, less searching, less ad clicks How can you differentiate between good traffic and bad? (p105) - Buying traffic for ad networks / user visits - All visitors (mostly) the same Tie the traffic to the type of business - Use the search engine to work with ads, not just page content

4. Search gets (more) relevant Search uses relevancy in new ways - The same traditional IR concept, but flipped to focus on ads, not pages What’s the best way to be better? - Human-created directories (Yahoo!) ? - System-centered algorithms (AltaVista, Google) ? - Add accountability to the search process ? Putting a price on search - Charge the advertiser to list & rank their content - Use scale & arbitrage in the systemarbitrage Computers are perfect for this

5. Re-inventing the wheel on the Web Many industries have been built by using technology to change the scale, which changes the business - The Industrial Revolution The scale of the Web: content & users might mean that advertisers might pay enough to get enough content for users to have enough to see if they searched - Not as easy as it might sound? How do you get advertisers to pay? - Free (or really cheap) samples - Auctions (to promote fair play)

6. Launching GoTo Different than the traditional Web ethos - Ethics, editorial trust & volume problems - (Do we still have these now?) The search engine model as the yellow pages - Finely tuned & more dynamic Brought (more) measurement & market dynamics to search - Helped create the modern business of search Not just on GoTo, but also syndicated on other’s sites - This is Google’s model (in a nutshell) now AdSense - ads on your siteAdSense AdWords - your ads on Google’s site(s)AdWords The Search Economy is born - Pay per click & CPMCPM

7. Here comes Google Larry Page & Sergey Brin Omid Kordestani Embrace advertising, but do it better - Text ads - Linked to query keywords Modified CPM Changes in the marketplace drives changes in Web advertising

8. AdWords “Have a credit card and 5 minutes?” - ”Get your ad on google today” ”Get your ad on google today” Separate ads from content - No graphical (blinking) ads - Established trust in results vs. ads - Kept the ad process clear (now expected) - Originally CPM - Eventually PPCPPC How would other information-providers compare & contrast to these models?

9. Google’s Progress The economy and the company grew back together Marketing Google - Don’t be Evil - Instead of Advertising Google Working with others - Eric Schmidt - Integrating into the Web - “Googling” as a verb News & the database of intentions

10. The Search Economy The ubiquity of search - Not so much about browsing now - Tools work with, not against search Search Engine Optimization - The Google Dance - Building and ranking - Web spam goes (more) pro How do you automate editorial judgement? What about the non-digital world? What about non-commercial interests & content?

11. Google’s Big Issues Trust & advertising The WORLD Wide Web - Censorship (China) Click Fraud Privacy - & permanence Product integration - Email & privacy Working with the government - Subpoenas, DMCA, Copyright & Trademarks

12. Google Today, Google Tomorrow What’s next for Google? - What would you do? - What products & features do you wish Google (or someone) had for you?products & features Engineering better search Wealth & Growth’s effects Do you think there is any competition? - What other search tools or similar products do you use?

13. The Perfect Search Ideas for good search still exceed current search technology What does perfect search look like? - Is perfection personal or communal? Search Everywhere, Search Anywhere Search Everything - The invisible Web - Does more online mean better search? Clickstreams & you - What affects you & what doesn’t (yet)

14. Search as the new Interface The Web makes IR an everyday activity Search Engines & tasks Search Interfaces & you - The clickstream (again) The openness of the Web changes everything - Access - Technological progress - Expectation - Credibility - Networks and Networking

15. Semantic Search More structure enables better understanding (of content) Tagging & folksonomies Your (desktop) content - A different kind of search? Personal content - blogs - Another different kind of search? - Friends (of friends) vs. everyone? WebFountain, complex metadata & metasearch

16. The Search Comments?

17. Assignments Read weekly Primary Readings & Participate in class discussions 10% - 1 page summaries Re-design Search Results interface 10% Web (log) analytics 20% “Google 2010” (5 page paper) 10% Web Information Retrieval System Evaluation & Presentation 20% Main Project or Paper 30%

18. Re-design Search Results interface Choose a search engine (not Google) and re-design the query AND result page interfaces - Snap, Live, Ask, Technorati, Clusty, & many others… Discuss what search features are and their interfaces - Highlight the good & the bad (or hard to understand or use) - Use your own perspective as a novice user or habitual user of the search engine Sketch, Photoshop &/or re-build the HTML pages to show your improved interface designs - Explain why you made the interface (& feature) changes - Illustrate how people would use the new interface Compare to other search engines or search tools & interfaces to give context to your re-design

19. System Evaluation & Presentation - 5 page written evaluation of a Web IR System - technology overview (how it works) - a brief history of the development of this type of system (why it works better) - intended uses for the system (who, when, why) - (your) examples or case studies of the system in use & its overall effectiveness

20. Projects and/or Papers Overview How can (Web) IR be better? - Better IR models - Better User Interfaces More to find vs. easier to find Scriptable applications New interfaces for applications New datasets for applications