Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Google's 'Caffeine' Search Index Promises a Fresher Web

by Amar Toor on June 9, 2010 at 09:30 AM

google caffeine
When most of us search for something on Google, we like to think that we're standing at the edge of the entire Web. In reality, though, Google only exposes us to the slice of the Internet that it processes and files in its library. Because it takes time for the search engine to build its library, it can be difficult for users to get a snapshot of the Net in real time. But apparently, that's all about to change, thanks to a new search index called Caffeine.

As Google explains on its blog, the new search mechanism allows for the real-time tracking of data, video and other rich online content, essentially giving users access to a continually updated index of what's going on. The company also claims that Caffeine will provide search results that are 50-percent "fresher" by simultaneously processing thousands of pages each second. The new index also stores up to 100 million gigabytes in a single database (the equivalent of 625,000 of Apple's largest iPods), and adds hundreds of thousands of gigabytes each day.

Google's previous index, much like the Earth, was comprised of stratified layers, each level being updated at a different rate as new information was registered. This meant that it would sometimes take a couple of weeks for new data to crawl its way to the main surface layer where we would see it. With a jolt of Caffeine, though, Google has essentially rejected Einstein-ian elegance in favor of real-time, quantum randomness, and has effectively unleashed the Internet, in all its ferocious splendor. [From: Google, via: ZDNet]

Tags: caffeine, google, google caffeine, google search, googlecaffeine, GoogleSearch, index, real-time, search, SearchEngine, storage, top

Comments

2

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular