Thursday, May 15, 2008
Interviewing and Paradox
I am in the process of interviewing for and deciding on a job. What I have learned is that while it can be a fun and exciting process, it is also time-consuming, and sometimes stressful.
I am now in the process of choosing between two mighty fine offers, between two mighty fine companies (Microsoft and Google Seattle). I am still torn, and making up my mind...But since the process is coming to the end, I can now look back and reflect on the more interesting stories. I will try to share a few here.
One way I've been thinking about MS and Goog is on their ability to implement and dominate web search. It seems that MS has been trying to compete and catch up with Goog for years now, and for all intents and purposes, hasn't managed to do it, and after talking with many people, I have gotten a dozen reasons why.
So I decided to take the issue to both MSN and Google.
First, I queried Google for "MSN Search Quality." Google gave up a slew of links about MSN's search quality, and the progress they're making (or not). Unfortunately, many of those hits weren't very "fresh" with opinions written a few years ago, from 2005, 2006, etc.
Next, I took the same query to MSN. The results had some issues. Hits 1-3 and 5 were completely irrelevant, apparently containing most/all of the search terms, but having nothing to do with MSN Search Quality. Hits 4 and 6 were opinion pieces suggesting that MSN Search Quality wasn't very good.
The punchline is that MSN's results yield a paradox. Either:
-david
I am now in the process of choosing between two mighty fine offers, between two mighty fine companies (Microsoft and Google Seattle). I am still torn, and making up my mind...But since the process is coming to the end, I can now look back and reflect on the more interesting stories. I will try to share a few here.
One way I've been thinking about MS and Goog is on their ability to implement and dominate web search. It seems that MS has been trying to compete and catch up with Goog for years now, and for all intents and purposes, hasn't managed to do it, and after talking with many people, I have gotten a dozen reasons why.
So I decided to take the issue to both MSN and Google.
First, I queried Google for "MSN Search Quality." Google gave up a slew of links about MSN's search quality, and the progress they're making (or not). Unfortunately, many of those hits weren't very "fresh" with opinions written a few years ago, from 2005, 2006, etc.
Next, I took the same query to MSN. The results had some issues. Hits 1-3 and 5 were completely irrelevant, apparently containing most/all of the search terms, but having nothing to do with MSN Search Quality. Hits 4 and 6 were opinion pieces suggesting that MSN Search Quality wasn't very good.
The punchline is that MSN's results yield a paradox. Either:
- MSN search quality is high, and the results are true, and MSN search quality is poor!
- MSN search quality is poor, and the results are false, and MSN search quality is high!
-david
