The Wisdom of Crowds - The technology behind Google

I should tell you up front before you invest time in this blog post, that the bulk of what you are about to read has absolutely nothing to do with attitudinal analytics, the voice of the customer, online research or customer service. It is for the most part, about a link sent to me by a colleague. He and I have been going back and forth via email, discussing a book we both just finished by New Yorker Columnist James Surowiecki called The Wisdom of Crowds. I won’t get into a whole book review here (although I will recommend it as a great and fascinating read). The subtitle: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, pretty much explains the concept of Surowiecki’s book.

To add some further context, Sam Sheikh on his ‘Management Speak’ blog writes:

"…He cites (refering to James Surowiecki) numerous instances where many discrete decisions and inputs can create a whole that is far more accurate or powerful than anything created by just a few decisions and inputs. The stock market is an example, where the mind-boggling number of decisions and inputs intersect to create essentially a gigantic repository of knowledge. Google, of course, works on a similar principle, where the data gathered from the decisions of large numbers of people help determine search rankings. And Google's success analyzing the decisions of many people fuels its continued use…”

So where is this all going?
This colleague of mine and I were talking about the Google analogy above.
On Saturday, April 1, 2006, he sent me this link - The technology behind Google's great results.

I hadn’t seen it before, and thought I would share it. Be reminded please of my disclaimer above, and for the sake of my reputation, I will also say that after the few first paragraphs, I realized what day it was.