11/28/2007 -- If there's a need in the market for a new kind of certification, it would have to be for a Google certification.

Now, before you roll your eyes, let me explain my logic. The purpose of an IT certification is to authenticate the skills of an individual. The market thinking is that if the individual has these skills (and these skills have been validated by a third-party), then that individual is worth more than someone who doesn't have -- or hasn't proven they have -- those skills.

Given this line of reasoning, there are two certifications that make sense. The first is an end user certification for using Google. End user certifications exist for Microsoft Office products and a host of applications that people use frequently. What other frequently used tool has the ability to affect productivity more than Google? None.

In his book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman describes an interview he did with Colin Powell while the latter was secretary of state. When Friedman asked Powell where he was when he realized the world had gone flat, Powell replied with only one word: "Google."

Not only is Google the "how" and "what," it's now also the "where" -- that's how ubiquitous it's become.

Why is a certification needed? Because there's enormous power in knowing how to use Google properly to find what you're looking for. The goal isn't to have 81,600,000 results come back in 0.21 seconds; you'll never look past the first few pages returned. You'll just get frustrated and try the same search again. The goal is to have only a few results returned, but all of them relevant to what you're looking for.

How many users even notice the Advanced Search link and know the potential it holds? How many know that a tilde can be used to find synonyms, that a plus sign marks required entries, or that a colon limits the search to a specified domain? How much more productive could a user who knew all this be than one who didn't? If anything screams of the need for a certification, it's this.

The second certification that would make sense is an administrator-level certification for search engine optimizers. There are individuals who make their living by ensuring that your site will appear higher in Google results than sites that don't use their services. How well do these individuals know their trade? How well do they know what to avoid on pages, what to add, what to tag, etc.? With more and more advertising revenue being diverted from traditional channels to Web sites, there's a real need for someone to prove they understand the channel.

CompTIA To Update Security+
Back in July, CompTIA announced the results of a Web poll it conducted that asked people to rank the 10 most influential technologies in IT. The results showed that most respondents (24 percent) felt security would have the greatest impact of any technology in the coming year (13 percent said wireless, and 12 percent said convergence).

Since then, CompTIA has been working to update its Security+ certification exam, soliciting SMEs to attend a workshop in October "to assist in the re-development of CompTIA Security+ through participation in a Job Task Analysis (JTA)."

If the organization holds to the same timeframe as previous updates, you can expect the new version of the exam to go live some time around October or November 2008. More information about all CompTIA certifications can be found here.

On a related note, Symantec has retired most of its security certification program (SCTS, SCSP, SCSE, SCTA) and recommends that candidates interested in vendor-neutral certifications should turn to Security+, GIAC or CISSP.

Book of the Week: 'The Search'
While it dates itself a bit, a book that will still take you by surprise is John Battelle's The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.

It's hard to believe that Google, a company whose name has gone from a noun to a verb, is roughly only a decade old. Trying to imagine the Web before Google is a difficult thing to do, but The Search does an exceptional job of showing how the simple search engine transformed the way we look at information and created a powerhouse repository capable of identifying both trends and intentions.