The technology behind
Google's great results
As a
Google user, you're familiar with the speed and
accuracy of a Google search. How exactly does Google manage to find
the right results for every query as quickly as it does? The
heart of
Google's
search technology is PigeonRank™, a system for ranking
web pages developed by Google founders and
at Stanford University.
Building upon the breakthrough work of
B.
F. Skinner, Page and Brin reasoned that low cost pigeon clusters
(PCs) could be used to compute the relative value of web pages faster
than human editors or machine-based algorithms. And while Google has
dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of our service on
a daily basis, PigeonRank continues to provide the basis for all of
our web search tools.
Why Google's patented PigeonRank™
works so well
PigeonRank's success relies primarily on the superior
trainability of the domestic pigeon (Columba livia) and its
unique capacity
to recognize objects regardless of
spatial
orientation. The common gray pigeon can easily distinguish among
items displaying only the minutest differences, an ability that enables
it to select relevant web sites from among thousands of similar pages.
By collecting flocks of pigeons in dense clusters,
Google is able to process search queries at speeds superior to
traditional
search engines, which typically rely on
birds of prey, brooding hens
or slow-moving
waterfowl to do their relevance rankings.
When
a search query is submitted to Google, it is routed to a data coop where
monitors flash result pages at blazing speeds. When a relevant result
is observed by one of the pigeons in the cluster, it strikes a rubber-coated
steel bar with its beak, which assigns the page a PigeonRank value of
one. For each peck, the PigeonRank increases. Those pages receiving
the most pecks, are returned at the top of the user's results page with
the other results displayed in pecking order.
Integrity
Google's pigeon-driven methods make tampering with
our results extremely difficult. While some unscrupulous websites have
tried to boost their ranking by including images on their pages of bread
crumbs, bird seed and parrots posing seductively in resplendent plumage,
Google's PigeonRank technology cannot be deceived by these techniques.
A Google search is an easy, honest and objective way to find high-quality
websites with information relevant to your search.
Data
PigeonRank Frequently Asked
Questions
Brin and Page were the first to recognize
that this adaptability could be harnessed through massively parallel
pecking to solve complex problems, such as ordering large datasets or
ordering pizza for large groups of engineers. Page and Brin experimented
with numerous avian motivators before settling on a combination of linseed
and flax (lin/ax) that not only offered superior performance, but could
be gathered at no cost from nearby open space preserves. This open space
lin/ax powers Google's operations to this day, and a visit to the data
coop reveals pigeons happily pecking away at lin/ax kernels and seeds.
What are the challenges of operating so many pigeon
clusters (PCs)?
Pigeons naturally operate in dense populations,
as anyone holding a pack of peanuts in an urban plaza is aware. This
compactability enables Google to pack enormous numbers of processors
into small spaces, with rack after rack stacked up in our data coops.
While this is optimal from the standpoint of space conservation and
pigeon contentment, it does create issues during molting season, when
large fans must be brought in to blow feathers out of the data coop.
Removal of other pigeon byproducts was a greater challenge, until Page
and Brin developed groundbreaking technology for converting poop to
pixels, the tiny dots that make up a monitor's display. The clean white
background of Google's home page is powered by this renewable process.
Aren't pigeons really stupid? How do they do this?
While no pigeon has actually been confirmed
for a seat on the Supreme Court, pigeons are surprisingly adept at making
instant judgments when confronted with difficult choices. This makes
them suitable for any job requiring accurate and authoritative decision-making
under pressure. Among the positions in which pigeons have served capably
are replacement air traffic controllers, butterfly ballot counters and
pro football referees during the "no-instant replay" years.
Where does Google get its pigeons? Some special
breeding lab?
Google uses only low-cost, off-the-street
pigeons for its clusters. Gathered from city parks and plazas by Google's
pack of more than 50 Phds (Pigeon-harvesting dogs), the pigeons are
given a quick orientation on web site relevance and assigned to an appropriate
data coop.
Isn't it cruel to keep pigeons penned up in tiny
data coops?
Google exceeds all international standards
for the ethical treatment of its pigeon personnel. Not only are they
given free range of the coop and its window ledges, special break rooms
have been set up for their convenience. These rooms are stocked with
an assortment of delectable seeds and grains and feature the finest
in European statuary for roosting.
What's the future of pigeon computing?
Google continues to explore new applications
for PigeonRank and affiliated technologies. One of the most promising
projects in development involves harnessing millions of pigeons worldwide
to work on complex scientific challenges. For the latest developments
on Google's distributed cooing initiative, please consider signing up
for our Google Friends newsletter.
Google Adds to Its Menagerie of Robots
Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics’ four-legged robot named WildCat can gallop at high
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Boston Dynamics
A robot named BigDog, which can walk over rough
terrain, can also stay upright in response to a well-placed human kick.
Google confirmed on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of
Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed mobile
research robots for the Pentagon. The company, based in Waltham, Mass.,
has gained an international reputation for machines that walk with an
uncanny sense of balance and even — cheetahlike — run faster than the
fastest humans.
It is the eighth robotics company that Google has acquired in the last
half-year. Executives at the Internet giant are circumspect about what
exactly they plan to do with their robot collection. But Boston Dynamics
and its animal kingdom-themed machines bring significant cachet to
Google’s robotic efforts, which are being led by
Andy Rubin, the Google executive who spearheaded the development of Android, the world’s most widely used smartphone software.
The deal is also the clearest indication yet that Google is intent on
building a new class of autonomous systems that might do anything from
warehouse work to package delivery and even elder care.
Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, a former professor
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It has not sold robots
commercially, but has pushed the limits of mobile and off-road robotics
technology, mostly for Pentagon clients like the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, or Darpa. Early on, the company also did
consulting work for Sony on consumer robots like the Aibo robotic dog.
Boston Dynamics’ walking robots have a reputation for being
extraordinarily agile, able to walk over rough terrain and handle
surfaces that in some cases are challenging even for humans.
A video
of one of its robots named BigDog shows a noisy, gas-powered,
four-legged, walking robot that climbs hills, travels through snow,
skitters precariously on ice and even manages to stay upright in
response to a well-placed human kick. BigDog development started in 2003
in partnership with the British robot maker Foster-Miller, NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory and Harvard.
The video has been viewed more than 15 million times since it was posted on YouTube in 2008.
More recently, Boston Dynamics distributed
a video of a four-legged robot named WildCat, galloping in high-speed circles in a parking lot.
Although the videos frequently inspire comments that the robots will
evolve into scary killing machines straight out of the “Terminator”
movies, Dr. Raibert has said in the past that he does not consider his
company to be a military contractor — it is merely trying to advance
robotics technology. Google executives said the company would honor
existing military contracts, but that it did not plan to move toward
becoming a military contractor on its own.
Under a $10.8 million contract, Boston Dynamics is currently supplying
Darpa with a set of humanoid robots named Atlas to participate in the
Darpa Robotics Challenge, a two-year contest with a $2 million prize.
The contest’s goal is creating a class of robots that can operate in
natural disasters and catastrophes like the nuclear power plant meltdown
in Fukushima, Japan.
“Competitions like the Darpa Robotics Challenge stretch participants to
try to solve problems that matter and we hope to learn from the teams’
insights around disaster relief,” Mr. Rubin said in a statement released
by Google.
Boston Dynamics has also designed robots that can climb walls and trees
as well as other two- and four-legged walking robots, a neat match to
Mr. Rubin’s notion that “computers are starting to sprout legs and move
around in the environment.”
A recent video
shows a robot named Cheetah running on a treadmill. This year, the
robot was clocked running 29 miles per hour, surpassing the previous
legged robot land speed record of 13.1 m.p.h., set in 1999. That’s about
one mile per hour faster than Jamaica’s
Usain Bolt, the two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 100-meter dash. But it’s far short of a real cheetah, which can hit 65 m.p.h.
Google’s other robotics acquisitions include companies in the United
States and Japan that have pioneered a range of technologies including
software for advanced robot arms, grasping technology and computer
vision. Mr. Rubin has also said that he is interested in advancing
sensor technology.
Mr. Rubin has called his robotics effort a “moonshot,” but has declined
to describe specific products that might come from the project. He has,
however, also said that he does not expect initial product development
to go on for years, indicating that Google commercial robots of some
nature could be available in the next several years.
Google declined to say much it paid for its newest robotics acquisition
and said that it did not plan to release financial information on any of
the other companies it has recently bought.
Dr. Raibert is known as the father of walking robots in the United
States. He originally created the Leg Lab, a research laboratory to
explore walking machines at Carnegie Mellon University in 1980. He then
moved the laboratory to M.I.T. before leaving academia to build
engineering systems for the military and Sony.
His research in walking robots began with a pogo-stick project called
“the hopper,” which he used to test basic concepts.
“I am excited by Andy and Google’s ability to think very, very big,” Dr.
Raibert said, “with the resources to make it happen.”
