Really interesting article at First Monday by Richard Wiggins about the role Google played on September 11 for disseminating information. Interesting analysis and comparison of Google to the other major search engines, as well as charts showing info about the types of queries and commentary about their behavior recommending users go to traditional types of media for up to date info. There follows an analysis about the evolution over the last few weeks that Google has made as the nature of the info and desires of it's users has changed. The last part of the article comments on the new tab system Google released this last week.

I find it very interesting to watch the commentary and analysis of Google within the industry, since I used to work at AltaVista. People are watching every move they make and offering criticism and analysis for every little change. I recall some of that at AV, but not to that level - if there was, we didn't pay attention. I wonder how it much Google pays attention to this, how much it affects or doesn't affect what they do and release onto the site? AltaVista could have done better to listen to some of the critics more often over the years as they evolved and devolved.