tedster - 7:11 am on Nov 28, 2008 (gmt 0)

However, storing lots of data is not the same as being able to sort that data very fast. It's an important difference.

I think there's plenty of practical value involved in speeding up computing processes - such as the ability to fold more complex intelligence into the algo. More complexity requires more computing, and a lot of Google's innvoation in recent times has come from just such advances. You want better duplicate handling? It takes faster computing cycles to make that happen. Same thing with catching and dumping spam.