Googlization: Search engine revvs up, takes off

Tech Talk: Above the Norm

Seven years ago, the sound "Google" was simply that — a sound. Today the word "Google" is perhaps one of the words most synonymous with the Internet, as it has become the most-used search engine on the Web.

The name "Google " is rooted more deeply than some awkward noise — it comes from the mathematical word googol, or the number one followed by 100 zeros — an enormous number.

Google's corporate Web site advertises, "There isn't a googol of anything in the universe. Not stars, not dust particles, not atoms. Google's use of the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the Web."

As the Internet has adapted and advanced, it appears to have found its niche in society — Google has done the same. Not only is it the world's largest and most-effective search engine, but it has become a societal icon associated with results and answers.

Google began in 1995 as a research project at Stanford University by graduate students Segey Brin and Larry Page, according to www.google.com. Initially called "BackRub" for its ability to analyze backlinks pointing to a given Web site, the engine soon would evolve into perhaps one of the driving forces behind the Internet's recent success. Brin and Page were on a mission to solve one of computing's biggest challenges — retrieving relevant information from a massive set of data.

Google went public Sept. 7, 1998, as a beta release — with relative penetration into the search engine market — serving roughly 10,000 searches a day. Less than a year later, the search engine advanced to servicing 500,000 searches a day, and in its first year of search engine existence, it was rated as one of the Web's best 100 search engines and Web sites by PC Magazine — still under a beta build. Roughly a year later, Google exited its beta stage and began serving over three million searches per day.

Google's success was instantly exponential, as today Google services over 200 million searches daily, scouring over three billion pages for data and information, according to the Google Web site. With an initial three employees running from their garage band-esque headquarters, Google now has over 1,000 employees and a corporate headquarters called the Googleplex located in Mountain View, Calif.

Google is available in 35 different languages and traffics over 73 million users a month. "The perfect search engine would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want," Page said. "Though acknowledged as the world's leading search technology company, Google's goal is to provide a much higher level of service to all those who seek information, whether he or she is at a desk in Boston, driving through Bonne, or strolling in Bangkok."

Not only is it the largest Internet search engine, but it also sells services that allow corporations to index and utilize their search algorithms (a technical term for search techniques) when one needs to rummage through just a corporate or organizational Web site, as opposed to the entire Internet.

JMU and other educational institutions utilize Google's search services free of charge, as this is Google's way of giving back what they have benefited from education.

"Our university program is an important step forward in expanding distribution for Google's search services," said Brin, who now serves as president of Google. "Students and users of university sites are actively seeking and researching specific information both on the Web and within an institution's domain.

"Our ultimate goal is (to) support the free flow of information, making it universally accessible to all," he said. "This program takes us one step further."

Page said, "Education has been a very important part of our lives, and we're thrilled to have an opportunity to give back to the educational community," said Page, who now acts as Google's chief executive officer.

Google is to the Internet what gasoline is to automobiles — an inherent necessity. Singlehandedly, Google's search technologies have rejuvenated an exhausted Internet. Its simplicity, effectiveness and efficiency ideally are what the Internet is all about — empowerment. Google puts information at the world's fingertips, and is perhaps one of the most powerful tools the world has ever seen since the dawn of computing.