Google’s Search Party

The press got an “insider’s perspective on search” today at Google’s annual Searchology event.   There was  live-blogging, webcasting and twittering galore as Marissa Mayer, VP of Search Products and User Experience, and a  team of Googlers gathered in building 40 at the Googleplex.

Udi Manber kicks the event off saying “our job is to do rocket science that will be taken for granted.” But, he adds, “there is still a lot of work to do.”

He continues talking about growth throughout the centuries. “In the 20th century,” he explains, the dream was to conquer nature; I think the 21st centure will be about understanding people.”

“We have made a lot of progress, and you’ll see some more today. But, the most promising advance is that we are starting to ‘understand.’”

“We have very high confidence that this is what you’re looking for. It’s actually hard to do, but it looks easy to you.”

“Search has to be lightening fast, relevant comprehensive fresh, but the main point is that even that is not enough.”

He ends by juggling three eggs. Then saying “I wanted to highlight that things are not always what they seem,” he throws the eggs, and they bounce off the stage.

via Searchology: State of the Union of Search at Google – ReadWriteWeb.

During the event, Google announced three new search products coming soon:  Google Squared, Rich Snippets and a new Android application called Sky Map.  They also revealed that they had seen an early version of the much-anticipated Wolfram, a “computational knowledge engine” launching this month.

A little competition would be a good thing, for all of us…