A new quantum computer search algorithm replaces the Grover Search Algorithm (GSA), and may make websearching a rewarding enterprise… sometime in the next century. Its inventor? Er, Lov Grover?Already famous in quantum computing circles for inventing the first quantum search algorithm in 1996, and showing how it could be used to solve a range of different computational and physics problems, Grover, a researcher at Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs in New Jersey, has now invented a technique that would allow a quantum computer to almost instantaneously search massive databases with fine-tuned precision. His technique can identify items in huge databases even when the search terms are hopelessly vague ? finding someone’s phone number in the gigantic New York phone book, for instance, even if the person’s last name or address isn’t known. All the algorithm needs is one or two definitive search terms, plus a probability associated with each search criteria. Grover?s latest algorithm is one of only a handful, developed so far for quantum computers. Unlike a conventional step-by-step computer program, quantum algorithms take advantage of spooky quantum properties to perform operations as though in parallel. This allows a quantum computer to tear through huge calculations or searches in a fraction of the time would takes a traditional machine. In a million item database, a conventional computer would have to look at 500,000 items to find a search item - but Grover’s algorithm would have to look at only 1,000 items. This could yield huge time savings when searching big databases. David DiVincenzo, a researcher at IBM’s Watson Research Center said Grover’s research was of limited usefulness because of the lack of quantum computers to run the algorithm on. ?It may,? he said sniffily, ?some day be important in searching databases very far in the future on hardware that does not exist and will not exist for a very long time in the future.?