Horserace journalism has been somewhat unmoored from reality for years now, exaggerating the importance of transient events and personality quirks in search of a master narrative.

FORBES: Data Will Kill the Political Media "Narrative"

For its salary survey it went beyond its members and combed through data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and a master set of data developed by a compensation measurement company called Job Search Intelligence.

FORBES: College Degrees With the Highest Starting Salaries

Its employer members tend to be large companies, but for its salary surveys it goes beyond its members and combs through data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and a master set of data developed by a compensation measurement company called Job Search Intelligence.

FORBES: The Top-Paying Liberal Arts Degrees

And, as Google expands beyond search, the risk is that the company will come to believe that its engineers can master any business, solve any problem, and that Google will lose its focus.

NEWYORKER: The Search Party