Re: Is the W3C endorsing Google?

On Fri, 2004-04-23 at 13:33, Ben Lewis wrote:
> Is the W3C endorsing Google by including the search engine on it's
> home page?  If so, why Google?  Because it’s the best?  If it is the
> best, how do you know it is the best and by what measure? Even if it
> is the best, should the W3C be in the business of endorsing a
> particular proprietary search technology?  

Hi Ben,

Good questions. 

This is not an official endorsement of google. We are
making use of their free service and have been satisfied
with it. 

We do try very hard to avoid favoring a particular 
vendor. We could have put several search boxes on our 
home page to give different vendors equal time, but
this would cost us in home page real estate and we have
not considered this a benefit to users. Note that you
can use any search engine to search our site.

> Other than this small issue I am a strong supporter of W3C
> activities.  

Thank you. 

> I also am a big Google user, though I have become concerned about it's
> level of dominance.  I have found that http://google-watch.org
> provides some useful perspective on the matter.

Thank you for the link. Have you personally found other
sites that you are satisfied with?

 _ Ian

-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447