Google Claim: Make Algorithms Smart through Data, not Complexity

Google researchers Alon Halevy, Peter Norvig, and Fernando Pereira have an article in IEEE Computer magazine entitled “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data“.  The article continues a theme that has been running strong within Google circles for the past half decade about how training a simple algorithm with larger amounts of data is more effective than having a smart algorithm that tries to generalize or draw inferences from smaller amounts of data:

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Controversial Views and Web Search

Daniel Tunkelang continues to raise provocative and interesting questions over on his blog.  I would like to point readers to the comments section of a recent post.  In one of my own comments there, I raise a question about ad-supported web search engines (as typified by, though by no means limited to, Google) and their willingness and ability to switch business models.  In particular, I express the following consternation:

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