why has the google algorithm never been leaked?

[disgust]

I just find it incredibly improbable that they could keep things this secure. they have many employees all over the place.

they also have an absurd number of servers.

people leak things. servers can be exploited into.

virtually anything in high demand gets leaked or exploited or cracked. look at the warez scene; games are released months before beta copies were even pressed. source code's been stolen. movies, music, applications are almost always available before the public release date-- they consistantly have people on the inside.

why do you think it hasn't happened? do you think it will, and it's just a matter of time? what do you think will happen if it does?

obviously they have security & other countermeasures in place. but it's not like adobe, valve, major movie/cd labels, etc, don't have these.

[Citizen]

There's probably only a few key people that have access to the algorithm.

That, and they more than likely change it often.

[disgust]

they tweak it, yes, but they don't rebuild it from the ground up. a leak would provide a ton of insight even if they continued to make tons of tweaks after the fact-- though my guess is that in such a situation they may be forced to make radical changes.

"only a few key people have access" sounds good, but can that really be true? the algorithm is a massively complex piece of software. it's not like just a few people can do all of this. it's true that people may not have access to the entire thing and only work on sections, but it still seems incredibly odd that no leak-- not even a minor one of a subset of the algo-- has ever been leaked.

not to mention that for the sake of speed, I'm pretty sure each datacenter has its own boxes with the ability to spit out results. in other words, there's not one single master server which only has the algo stored. considering the number of datacenters, it's surprising that not one of these has ever been compromised.

[karinca]

....because i think google is strong enough to control own system..(own control team)

[debunked]

The team is told if anything gets out they are all fired.

[Phynder]

Which algorithm are you talking about exactly? Most of their algorithms are detailed at the USPTO - all you need to do is search for "google" over in the Patent Full-Text Search.

[Bernard]

I think few people would understand it even if it was presented to them.

[DFischer]

That is an interesting question, but maybe there really is such a good enviornment with google that... you can't even think of hurting them when they help you out so much.

or they gave you part of the plan to take over the world, but meh! lol

[Christopher]

I'm guessing that the people that do know the algo have a profitable incentive in keeping their mouth shut. Likely a profit sharing (stock options) that means if google is doing well, so are they.

And undoubtedly there is a negative consequence to spilling the beans. No doubt that google owns you (via a very well written contract) when you work for them. And that contract stays in effect long after you leave google. Leak the algo and you are going to be economically (and perhaps criminally) destroyed.

Big positives for staying quiet. Huge, huge, negatives if you leak.

Though I'm not sure that their algo is really all that valuable. Some particulars - sure. But overall, their search engine isn't really that far ahead (maybe even behind - based on current screwyness) of any of the other major engines.

[121603]

I think it has been leaked, it's just that people who were given a copy are just not speaking.. hehe

[Cheap SEO Services]

Would you leak this info if you were a Google Algo Monkey (GAM) and were given a constant supply of perfectly ripe, peeled and hand fed bananas?

[britishguy]

The dudes who hold the algorithm are either millionaires the ordinary guys in G or mega rich billionaires most of the top guys in G.

So why would they release the info 'that brings them in billions of dollars'

Ask YouTube 1.6BUSD all from G

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube

[Phynder]

Which algorithm are you guys talking about? Most of the algorithms are known and have been detailed in various places.

[noppid]

Originally Posted by debunked

The team is told if anything gets out they are all fired.

Actually, I think it's cause the team never gets out.

[Cheap SEO Services]

Originally Posted by noppid

Actually, I think it's cause the team never gets out.

See? It all points back to how many bananas have been fed to those poor soulless monkeys

[JoshuaGross]

Originally Posted by DFischer

That is an interesting question, but maybe there really is such a good enviornment with google that... you can't even think of hurting them when they help you out so much.

or they gave you part of the plan to take over the world, but meh! lol

I think that's part of it, plus they hire REALLY good people. It's not like they hire just anybody and pay them cheaply to work. If people work at Google, they're GOOD, they're SMART, and they WANT to be there.

[noppid]

Originally Posted by JoshuaGross

I think that's part of it, plus they hire REALLY good people. It's not like they hire just anybody and pay them cheaply to work. If people work at Google, they're GOOD, they're SMART, and they WANT to be there.

You mean as opposed to having a girl friend and a life?

But hey, they get free food. Must be great!

[tbarr60]

More likely it's hundreds smaller algorithms that get aggregated so it may be that no one person has all of the information.

[Winagain]

You can have a lot of security distributing your info in a "need to know" basis.
that way, nobody really knows all that's happening, hence they can only reveal a small part that's not complete by itself

[debunked]

the "they" were are talking about are all laughing at this thread....