Can Sundar Pichai Lead The Next Generation of Googlers

I find the microscope one of the most ingenious tool ever contrived by man. A little study would reveal something interesting about it. Man’s desire to probe into deeper nature and its surroundings will continue for as long as man exists. Its invention would lead to the study of microbiology which was a precursor to modern medicine. Without it, clinical breakthrough by scientist such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch wouldn’t have been possible, threatning the existence of man.

The strength of the microscope is its magnifying power, the earliest form of microscope had a magnifying power of about 6x-10x, present day microscope has a magnifying power that can produce magnifying strength in the range of 1250x to 1500x with theoretical resolution limit of around 0.250 micrometer. What has caused this sharp increase in its magnifying power? Is the microscope a victim of its powers or are we just curious as human? There are definitely certain things we can learn about its development over the years.

On the 10th of August this year this year, Sundar Pichai was announced as Google’s new chief, making it the first time the search giant wouldn’t be headed by a triumvirate. Before Sundar Pichai ascends the throne, he must understand how a microscope works, its history and its contribution to the survival of man.

Google has over a period of nineteen years, changed the history of search forever. It pioneered the page rank technology, introduced adwords-its cash cow and continues to power billions of search queries every day. But Google has become a victim of its success. It has struggled for many years to live by its slogan, “don’t be evil”. Evil itself is a difficult concept to understand, in its simplest term, it will mean an unbalanced behavior involving expediency, ignorance or neglect.

Every year, Google makes about 500 to 600 changes to its search algorithm. Most of these changes are minor but the few major ones go on to have monumental impact on the flow of information on the web. The most hit are smaller website who though possess enormous information but who Google feel are not useful and hence should not be accessible.

This is what I call neglect, a behavior synonymous of evil. Google is a curse of the America culture-only granting audience to the cheerleaders and leaving many websites inaccessible. In Google’s language, you are only as important as long as you keep up with the jones. If Google is a gatekeeper of world information, it must balance its act. In a bid to remain relevant, it must begin to take microscopic view of itself.

Larry and Sergey think search is boring and want to do cool stuff like driverless cars and drones, handling off their most prized possession to an outsider. But search truly is boring, for about two decades since search was pioneered, there hasn’t been a clear cut innovation on how we search for information on the web.

Google must have pioneered the page rank technology in 1996 but it seems contented with its success and is unwilling to advance a higher and improved search technology. This is the point where the microscope should be called into use and handed over to incoming Google’s chief.

Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, was not the first man to build a microscope but his fascination for the unknown as well as his shear devotion to the study of his little life will lead to so many discovery. He was regarded as a pioneer in the field of microbiology delving into fields like parasitology, bacteriology and protozoology. He examined the human body closely giving vivid description of human cells.

Sundar Pichai needs no introduction in the tech world. For little over ten years, he has held the tech scene spellbound with his meticulousness and clear understanding of technology. Many insiders believe Pichai was being primed for the job but experts know there is a great distinction between product development and product acceptance. Pichai works on Google chrome, Google drive, Google maps, Gmail and android all prove he is able to blend these two qualities together, a distinction that has made him the toast of many companies.

Armed with a genius, Google must lead its next generation of Googlers and Sundar Pichai is the man for the job. But Google needs no genius and search engine require no expert to run it. What Google need is an Antonie Van Leeuwohoek.

According to Socrates, “the only through wisdom is knowing you know nothing”. Sundar Pichai must put on the cloak of ignorance and lead Google from the outside rather than from the inside. A stupendous amount of obsession is required for this job; Antonie Van Leeuwohoek was obsessed with microbes. His obsession drove him to produce better microscope by grinding single lens to produces image of greater magnification and clarity than any of his predecessor and contemporary were able to produce, opening up the world to microbiology. This kind of obsession and curiosity would be all Pichai will require for success.

As Pichai prepares to ascend the throne he must probe like Leeuwohoek and begin to ask some fundamental questions like, what do people really want? What are they searching for? What do they want to see? And how do they want to see it? As content is considered king on the web, search must be its enabler and not a destroyer.

The future of search is constantly evolving, how people searched for information on the web in 1996 is quite different from now and ultimately how they will search the web in the coming future. People don’t want a drop down list of possible result from a search query, what they require is the answer.

Google over the years has perfected the technology of suggestion. For Google to move into the future, search engines must drop its indolence and provide answers people want. The old-time method of simply suggesting possible answers from over a million websites is old and should be retired. Rather a comprehensive report based on the search query should be generated, organizing information in a more user friendly manner.

Of concern to Pichai, should be the ever growing contents in the dark web. Google and other search engines cannot sit on the fence. If it’s to live by its mission to organize world information and make it universally accessible and useful, it must be able to access the deepest part of the web.

Google owes this as a matter of virtue to its users. If the web is interconnected, search must also be interconnected; Google and other search engines must not act in isolation. Pichai must form close alliance with major search engines and introduce a universal search engine that looks into the future; the saying, ''if you want to go far, go with people'' is still valid.

The future is mobile. In March this year, Quixey, a startup in California raised $60 million in a Series c funding round led by Alibaba, bringing in a total of $133.8 million in funding. Quixey’s intention is to power search on mobile and wants to add a search box to every mobile device. If it lives true to its goal, Quixey could in the near future overthrow Google as the de facto search engine in the world.

Like Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, Sundar Pichai would need to keep grinding and polishing his lenses to obtain a magnifying power capable of viewing through the spectrum of search and gain better understanding as to how humans will predict the future of search.

Thank you for reading. I would like to know your thought, what is the future of Google under Sundar Pichai? Are we going to witness any innovation in how we search for information on the web? You can read more of my post on coffeetimex.