For Google, the search never ends

If you read newspapers or websites these days, it’s understandable if you conclude a couple of things about the search business: First, Google stands unchallenged; and second, search as a service is largely figured out. But you'd be wrong on both fronts.

In fact, as the person responsible for trying to make our search engine function better, I can attest to the fact that we face challenges — serious ones — all the time. Far from being a solved problem, search is constantly evolving. To understand where we are today, we need to go back to 2001. Back then, we had already built a better way to organize the online universe, making a wealth of information widely accessible. But when Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, we realized we were woefully inadequate.