Google Acquires Kaltix

for context-sensitive search technologies

[4crests]

[sanjose.bizjournals.com...]

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Older thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[Brett_Tabke]

Press Release [home.businesswire.com].

[lazerzubb]

No suprise there.

[heini]

Hardly surprising, this was printed all over the Kaltix:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[4crests]

Makes me wonder if Amazon was interested in Kaltix, and Google moved first.

snipped these tidbits from various articles:

This is the same group that created the PageRank algorithm.

Kaltix's main technology is a faster way to compute PageRank.

Kaltix has mainly been working on "personalization," which aims to sort search results based on the specific
needs and interests of individuals.

This technology would allow Google (or any other search engine) to quickly recalculate personalized indexes for each and every user. After seeding a personal index with my bookmarks file, Google would know that when I search for "Jaguar" I'm probably interested in the latest version of Apple's OS, not the car or the cat.

[4crests]

looks like MSGRAPH called that one nicely.

[Chndru]

Google seems to be calling right shots all along ;)
<added> kaltix.com now redirects to google.com </>

[the_nerd]

Does anyone in here know more about kaltix? How can those guys create something that's worth buying within just 3 months? Are they extraterrestials, geniuses, or spin-offs off some other SE company?

[jeremy goodrich]

They have some great papers out there, those researchers that started Kaltix. It only makes sense for Google to buy what is, in many ways, an advanced version of their own core systems to augement their own.

Should enable them to reach some new levels of personalization & rapid turn around with their search engine cycle.

<added>

Kaltix was founded by a group of researchers from Stanford: dig around for BlockRank and Quadratic Extrapolation to read up on some of their papers.

[Richmond8]

Why would they wait until now? Those papers and their research has been public for a while now. Someone could have beaten Google to the punch.

[edited by: Richmond8 at 4:42 pm (utc) on Sep. 30, 2003]

[EliteWeb]

wow nice move, how much do you think it was aquired for?

[jeremy goodrich]

It may have something to do with FAST's (alltheweb.com) recent acceleration to an index of 3 billion, thus putting new life into the "search engine size races" that we saw a year or two ago, when they were racing to be the 1st to 1 billion indexed.

The technology (algorithms) from Kaltix, if they are the same ones I read about, wouldn't necessarily be great for building the initial index, but for increasing the refresh rate in record time.

This is key before really unleashing a more global SERP personalization, eg, storing your data in a file someplace, and using the cookie they place on your box that doesn't expire till 2038 to know that when you search for 'widgets' you want "widget information" and haven't clicked anything related to "buying widgets" (crude example).

[4crests]

So, soon you will search for "ENGINES" on Google, and Google will return information about Car Engines instead of a bunch of Search Engine sites that come up now. It will see that in the past that when you searched for Engines that you wanted Car Engines.

Then, it will see you live in Seattle, and the first results will be Car Engine related sites in Seattle.

pretty cool. (as long as you can turn it on and off).

[dmorison]

I hope they don't go overboard with this location context stuff; otherwise us 'ere pioneering ASPs (Application Service Providers) are going to get displaced down the SERPs in favour of local bricks'n'mortar companies :(

And it's not just ASPs, eTailors serving a whole region are going to get displaced in favour of local physical outlets; when infact if you are searching on the Internet it may be mail-order companies that you're interested in.

[4crests]

dmorison,
I agree 100%. It would be a disaster for my business.

Hopefully, it will be an option/tab you can choose. Kind of like searching the Directory, or Groups.

Besides, it would cause sites to open a fake virtual location in every city.

I hate those kids of sites where you search for a term, and "your city" and you get a bunch of junk. I tried searching for "Location_name Keyword1 Keyword2" the other day, and 99% of the sites weren't really "Location_name" sites. They were just a bunch of mirror sites tailored to every city in the U.S.

But, it seems the Kaltix thing is more about personalization than geo targeting.

[edited by: heini at 5:39 pm (utc) on Sep. 30, 2003]
[edit reason] examplified [/edit]

[vitaplease]

Boy, 3 months, that wasn't even a company yet.

Pitty - Haveliwala is a brain to have with a Google competitor.

[Allergic]

4crests :

Makes me wonder if Amazon was interested in Kaltix, and Google moved first.

Cambian Ventures was behind Kaltix. And Amazon have bought Junglee [cambrianventures.com], one of the others startups of Cambian. I almost sure I also seen Amazon executive been part of Cambian. Weird, specially after the A9 story and the fight for employes!^!

[4crests]

Could have been Amazon or possibly MSN. MSN has been talking about the same personalization thing. But, more than likely, Google had first shot at this, and Kaltix never had any notion of selling to anyone but Google.

[dvb_99]

So once it starts applying kaltix algo to the search results it will indeed have an interesting search results

want to see what's in the algo of kaltix..

anyone?

[shorebreak]

What do you all think will be the impact on Google's overall CTRs of having in place the type of personalization they imagine with Kaltix? If, for example, Google's CTRs double, their revenues would likely jump at least 50-75%, if not more.

If that's the case and you assume other search engines will get their hands on similar technology, then that'll mean higher stock prices for YHOO, FWHT, IAC, and others, right?