The ResourceShelf:
"Running a link search (finding out who’s linking to a specific page) is a useful service many web engines provide. It’s a great way to find relationships between companies/organizations, discover new ideas, or additional sites. A problem with Google’s reverse link search is that you cannot use any additional terms in the query. For example, if you’re trying to limit a search to identify pages only in the .edu domain that link to a specific page, the search will not work. However, it will work with AllTheWeb."
Google Cultists (sounds like a cargo cult) should have a look elsewhere to understand that Google, no matter how good it is, is not only not perfect (nobody is), but is not listening as hard as some people think they are. Information retrieval specialists have been pointing to its limited advanced syntax for years, and what have we got? A site tour. Not that the later is useless, but people, Google is a company, not a religion. They’re here to do business like everyone else, they just have a PR department more in tune with the zeitgeist ("don’t be evil", what a joke).
Check this out: "Your ultimate destination has it all." Google knows there’s no way they can escape frontal war with Yahoo and MSN, though it might have been the plan from the get go. Managing to finance your growth with your future competitor’s money is brilliant, as IBM learnt from Microsoft: Google on Yahoo is OS/2 1.0, a tactical product to learn from the master and eventually overtake him. We just witnessed the birth of the baby Alien, now watch it wreck it havock.
There’s no question Google is turning into a portal. They’ll just do it with a more efficient, less bloated interface, and won’t try to produce content themselves. See how Usenet now turns into "a couple million experts" or how they brag about listing 400 million images.
I expect Google to soup up real estate and finance within 18 months, if they’re able to aggregate results from dedicated web sites (e.g. Homestore, HomeAdvisor) and get away with it (I think MLS listings are copyrighted so this would be a fun legal battle.) They would do auction aggregation a la AuctionWatch if there was money in it (eBay is too big relative to its competition to make it worthwhile.) Related VP job openings won’t show up on Google’s HR site.
In other news, Google is looking for Windows engineers who have UI experience, giving more substance to Google Desktop visions that have been floating around. If I were them, I’d sell Outlook and Lotus Notes plugins to large accounts. They also seem to be doing more business in Germany than elsewhere in Europe, looking at the number of new openings in that sales office.