Googled Again !!
Last week (to be specific FEB 2) I was surprised by Google again. I donno whether this was a coincidence or another of google's technological advances, but whatever it is I was simply awestruck .
Here's how the story goes....
Our network had an attack of the dreaded 'Win32/Mywife.E@mm ' virus during the 3'rd week of January.I must say that the guy who wrote is pretty good because ,not only was this worm a headache becase of the way it infected the systems,but also destructive because it rendered all major antivirus sytems useless.The worm was a serious problem and somehow AVG reported the worm to be 'GENERIC.FX Worm" before it breathed its last.So I went upon a bloodhound search on Google to find out wht this worm was and found out to my dismay that it was a very common worm,but I knew this was not the case as the worm which infected our network was much more severe.I gave up my search in despair after aout 3-4 hours after searching a plethora of sites like Norton and Mcafee.We finally managed to conatin the virus by using a firewall and block out the infection one by one.But i was dissapointed that i couldnt find the name or details of the virus which had caused so much trouble.
Cut to FEB 2
On morning of FEB 2 I opened Gogle News (which i have made up as a habit) and lo ! in my personalised news section,what do I find first ? News about 'Win32/Mywife.E@mm ' and how it is infecting millions of system worldwide.I was at first surprised, but when i checked it out, I found that this was exactly the same worm which affected our network weeks ago.Also was the News that the worm will delete files from the HDD on FEB 2 which was the next day !!. Alarmed I searched in Google with 'Win32/Mywife.E@mm ' (atleast I had a name this time) and found out a removal tool from Symantec.Then I used the tool to scan and remove the virus from my system,which if I had not done at that day would have been a tragedy.This would not have been possible if i didnt kno the name of the worm at all.
So DID Google using their search tracking (which i had turned on) found out that I HAD SEARCHED for the symptom of the virus (ie. zip files in folders, antivrus crashing etc)and returned me with a name of the virus and that too a day before the Infection would have been deadly ??? .or was this just a pure coincidence ??
I am amazed by this possiblity if this was indeed one, that Google had actually tracked my search and alerted me intelligentaly based on the context of my search.This would mean a whole new era in the way search engines handle searches ,ie not only the keywords ,but also the content and context of search was tracked and relevant information was passed on to users.This would mean that not only the words we type will be being searched ,but the meanining and context of the words will also be used to give us a relevant information. That would mean something on the lines of searching "Who is the president of USA" and returning not only with pages containing the keywords ,but also the the pages containing the president's name in them. That is the holy grail I hope the search engines like Google will aim for sure !!
Here's how the story goes....
Our network had an attack of the dreaded 'Win32/Mywife.E@mm ' virus during the 3'rd week of January.I must say that the guy who wrote is pretty good because ,not only was this worm a headache becase of the way it infected the systems,but also destructive because it rendered all major antivirus sytems useless.The worm was a serious problem and somehow AVG reported the worm to be 'GENERIC.FX Worm" before it breathed its last.So I went upon a bloodhound search on Google to find out wht this worm was and found out to my dismay that it was a very common worm,but I knew this was not the case as the worm which infected our network was much more severe.I gave up my search in despair after aout 3-4 hours after searching a plethora of sites like Norton and Mcafee.We finally managed to conatin the virus by using a firewall and block out the infection one by one.But i was dissapointed that i couldnt find the name or details of the virus which had caused so much trouble.
Cut to FEB 2
On morning of FEB 2 I opened Gogle News (which i have made up as a habit) and lo ! in my personalised news section,what do I find first ? News about 'Win32/Mywife.E@mm ' and how it is infecting millions of system worldwide.I was at first surprised, but when i checked it out, I found that this was exactly the same worm which affected our network weeks ago.Also was the News that the worm will delete files from the HDD on FEB 2 which was the next day !!. Alarmed I searched in Google with 'Win32/Mywife.E@mm ' (atleast I had a name this time) and found out a removal tool from Symantec.Then I used the tool to scan and remove the virus from my system,which if I had not done at that day would have been a tragedy.This would not have been possible if i didnt kno the name of the worm at all.
So DID Google using their search tracking (which i had turned on) found out that I HAD SEARCHED for the symptom of the virus (ie. zip files in folders, antivrus crashing etc)and returned me with a name of the virus and that too a day before the Infection would have been deadly ??? .or was this just a pure coincidence ??
I am amazed by this possiblity if this was indeed one, that Google had actually tracked my search and alerted me intelligentaly based on the context of my search.This would mean a whole new era in the way search engines handle searches ,ie not only the keywords ,but also the content and context of search was tracked and relevant information was passed on to users.This would mean that not only the words we type will be being searched ,but the meanining and context of the words will also be used to give us a relevant information. That would mean something on the lines of searching "Who is the president of USA" and returning not only with pages containing the keywords ,but also the the pages containing the president's name in them. That is the holy grail I hope the search engines like Google will aim for sure !!
Comments
I am a researcher studying innovation management in Ottawa Canada.
I came to your blog following a writely story but was intrigued by your note "Surprised by google".
I don't think it should be a surprise any more given the progress being made on HCI research and efforts being made to computing habbits. Google stands to benefit by tracking user habbits and integrating them accross their tools...gmail, desktop, scholar...and you name it.
But more so its you who are allowing google your habbit data.
Bharat
It is one method of monitoring the habits of users and trying to guess the context of the keyword,but rather it will be beneficial if the search itself was more context based thatn just a search for some strings.
Manu