Google has issued a programming contest to create either an application or a system that can improve their services.
A prize of $10,000 plus a VIP visit to Google HQ is at stake.
The contest does not mention Perl, but OTOH it does not forbid it either. Although the ultimate goal should be to improve efficiency, they keep an open attitude regarding how such a benefit can be achieved (making a better engine, changing data structure, compressing in a different way and so on).
Contestants can download sample data and programs (57 MB) that should be intesting to look at. It includes data from 16000 web pages and a link to a site from where you can download the full set if you feel like it.
I think that some monks might consider the contest worth a glimpse. At the very least, you can get an idea of what is under the hood.

update Now somebody confirmed that Perl is not accepted in the contest (thanks, chaoticset) but anyway it was fun looking at the code! :)
 _  _ _  _  
(_|| | |(_|><
 _|

[download]

In reply to (OT) Google programming contest by gmax

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.