Google

Google -  A Web Search Engine based on new technology developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University in Palo Alto. Brin and Page understood that then current manually compiled directories and other technologies were not an efficient and adequate way of providing quality Web.

Google founders pioneered a technology that had the following major characteristics:

• Listings would be compiled automatically using a Web spider.
• Sites would be ranked for authority according to how many other sites Link to them (Google PageRank)
• Results would not be influenced by payment for listings.
• Algorithm performance would be checked and tweaked constantly to improve quality.

The technological problem to be solved was to demonstrated a practical technology that could index a large number of pages and the relevant information about them in a reasonable time span and retrieve them quickly enough for practical use. A distributed processing model and various proprietary innovations made this possible.

The initial prototype was demonstrated by the founders and its principles were discussed in two important articles: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine and The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web.

Google's business model is primarily based on purchase of AdWords by advertisers, for advertisements to be shown either on Search Engine Web pages with the appropriate keywords or in in Web pages that have the appropriate content. The Web page contents are sensed using Adsense technology and system.

By 1998, Google had a working Web site and a business. The firm grew rapidly, despite the "dotcom" crash of 1999-2000 and by 2004 it was ready to go public. In fact, it was forced to go public because of the size of its business and the nature of its business structure. All employees own at least some stock in the company. At its peak market share, Google was responsible for abut 85% of search engine market share. In 2004, however,  Yahoo! and other search companies ended their partnership with Google. Google still originates about 50 to 60% or more of search engine traffic, and therefore it is the number one basis of search engine optimization. In effect, when people talk about search engine optimization, they are talking about designing Web sites to get a high rank in Google. The trade name Google came from the word Googol, meaning 10 to the 100th power or 1 followed by 100 zeros, a word invented in 1938 by 9 year old Milton Sirotta.

Google has become eponymous for Web searches and the verb "to Google" (search in Google) has entered the English language and quite a few others. In 2007, Google had revenues of over $13 billion, net income of over $4 billion and employed over 19,000 employees.

The chief officers of Google contented themselves with a salary of $1 each in 2004. Their actual income is based on appreciation of their stock options, so they have an interest in making the company grow.

In addition to Pagerank, patented by Stanford University, Google has patented a number of other technologies including a method for determining similarity of Web pages.

Google Products

Google has branched out into numerous other businesses and subcategories and derivatives of search and Web gadgets, either by developing its own technology or by purchasing businesses. Most Google products and gadgets are free. Google products and offerings  include but are not limited to the following:

Text Search - the initial business

News search, which compiles news from selected sources.

Image search - a specialized search for graphic images on the Web.

Blog Search - a search of Web logs.

Blogger.com - a Google acquired company that hosts web logs.

Chrome browser - Google has launched its own browser to compete with Microsoft Internet explorer and others.

Knol.com - a Google version of Wikipedia - an edited encyclopedia.

Google Directory - This is the dmoz directory but with Google's own rating system.

Google Doctype - A new (2008) encyclopedia of Web development. http://code.google.com/doctype/ 

Google Mail (Gmail) - Free email with two innovations that forced upgrades among competitors. Google allows pop3 forwarding of mail to your email client software client and huge, virtually unlimited mail storage (over 1 GB as opposed to 10 MB which used to be the standard.

Google Toolbar - A "Swiss army knife" type application that is a plugin for your browser. It does spellchecking, gives you PageRank and link information about Web pages, eliminates popups and does a few other things. The Toolbar can collect information about your surfing habits if you let it do so. 

Youtube - a video hosting Web site that Google acquired.

Pixar - a service for organizing and storing photos.

Google Groups - Email discussion groups.

Google API - allows developers to access Google information.

Google Analytics - Analysis of Web site statistics and traffic, in partnership with Urchin. 

Docs and Apps - online Word Processing, Spreadsheets and other applications - all free for personal use at present.

Google Partnerships and Ventures

Google has engaged in partnership ventures with many firms including Fox, AOL, Sky, the Dmoz Open Directory and others.

The most remarkable and imaginative partnership is Google's partnership with NASA. On September 28, 2005, Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA. Google will build a 1-million square foot R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center. NASA and Google are planning to work together in areas such as large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry. The new building will include labs, offices, and housing for Google engineers.

In October 2006, Google announced a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help the open source office program OpenOffice.org, which provides clones of MicroSoft products that work on Unix compatible systems.

Note - Definitions of Search Engine Optimization terms are based on inferences from common usage and definitions given by other sources. Conclusions about search engine behavior are based on understanding of the behavior of the most popular search engines. Both are subject to error or may change. Search engine company management may define or use a term or set or change any policy in any way they see fit, and may make these definitions and specifications public or not. These decisions and definitions are beyond our control.  

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