Luke Hubbard

Google Caffeine is the next version of the Google.com search engine. The main improvement is supposed to be the speed of the search engine, so if getting a search result in .40 seconds wasn’t fast enough, you can now get a result in .15!

Many sources such as Mashable are citing that Google Caffeine is simply Google’s response to Bing. Let’s face it, Google has a history of stomping down the competition through viral marketing and a solid PR strategy.

Google updates their algorithms periodically anyway. Perhaps the improvements being labeled as Caffeine were simply going to be updates to the current search engine anyway. Improvements such as real time search results from sites like Twitter and new sources make perfect sense as an development for Google. Hasn’t Google historically made updates like this to improve the user experience over the years without telling us all?

Why did Google give the newest improvements a name when they’ve never before given them a name? Perhaps it’s because now the press has some drama… and boy do they love drama. I can picture the headlines now, “Will Google’s Caffeine smash Bing?”

Did Google’s marketing team decide to give the next update a name so that people worldwide would start talking about it instead of Bing? Will Google Caffeine steal market share from Bing simply because they named their already scheduled improvements?

Good job, Google.

- Luke Hubbard

I found a great article today on CNN about Digital Mapping.

Cars with 6 cameras, lasers, and GPS drive streets across the world, capturing information that is used for services such as Google Maps.