What began as a project helmed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students in Stanford University's Ph.D. program, is now one of the most influential companies on the World Wide Web: Google.
At first, the students' goal was to make an efficient search engine that gave users relevant links in response to search requests. While that's still Google's core purpose today, the company now provides services ranging from e-mail and document storage to productivity software and mobile phone operating systems. In less than a decade, Google evolved from a two-man enterprise to a multibillion-dollar corporation. Today, Google's popularity continues to grow. You know... Yahoo! relied on Google searches for nearly four years until developing its own search engine technologies in 2004. In this article, we'll learn about the backbone of Google's business: its search engine. We'll also look at the other services Google offers to both average users and to commercial businesses. Then we'll take a quick peek at some of the tools Google has developed over the years. We'll also learn more about the equipment Google uses to keep its massive operation running.
Do you know?
Google's name is a variation of the word "googol," which is a mathematical term for a one followed by 100 zeros. Page and Brin felt the name helped illustrate Google's monumental mission: Organizing billions of bytes of data found on the Web.
About google search engine:
Google's search engine is a powerful tool. Without search engines like Google, it would be practically impossible to find the information you need when you browse the Web. Like all search engines, Google uses a special algorithm to generate search results. While Google shares general facts about its algorithm, the specifics are a company secret. This helps Google remain competitive with other search engines on the Web and reduces the chance of someone finding out how to abuse the system.
Google uses automated programs called spiders or crawlers, just like most search engines. Also like other search engines, Google has a large index of keywords and where those words can be found. What sets Google apart is how it ranks search results, which in turn determines the order Google displays results on its search engine results page (SERP). Google uses a trademarked algorithm called PageRank, which assigns each Web page a relevancy score.
A Web page's PageRank depends on a few factors:
- The frequency and location of keywords within the Web page: If the keyword only appears once within the body of a page, it will receive a low score for that keyword.
- How long the Web page has existed: People create new Web pages every day, and not all of them stick around for long. Google places more value on pages with an established history.
- The number of other Web pages that link to the page in question: Google looks at how many Web pages link to a particular site to determine its relevance.
Google services:
As Google has grown, the company has added several new services for its users. Some of the services are designed to help make Web searches more efficient and relevant, while others seem to have little in common with search engines. With many of its services, Google has entered into direct competition with other companies.
Google's specialized searches are an extension of its normal search engine protocol. With specialized searches, you can narrow your search to specific resources. You can enter keywords into Google and search for:
- Images related to your keywords
- Maps
- News articles or footage
- Products or services you can purchase online
- Blog entries containing the keywords you've chosen
- Content in books
- Videos
- Scholarly papers
For these searches, Google has created specialized indexes that only contain relevant sources. For example, if you search for the term "Planet Earth" in the news category, the results will include only news articles that contain those keywords. The results will look very different from Google's normal SERP.
In the last few years, Google has unveiled services that don't relate to search engines upon first glance. For example, Google's Gmail is a free Web-based e-mail program. When the service first launched, Google limited the number of users who could create accounts. The first group of users could invite a limited number of people to join the service, and so Gmail invitations became a commodity. Today, anyone can sign up for a free Gmail account.
 Google's Gmail is now available to all users, but it was once a limited commodity. |
Gmail organizes e-mails into conversations. This means that when you send an e-mail to someone and he or she replies, both e-mails are grouped together as a thread in your inbox. This makes it easier to follow the flow of an e-mail exchange. If you reply to your friend's response, Google will attach your message to the bottom of the thread. It's easy to navigate through the e-mail program and follow specific conversations.
Google tools:
Google offers a popular tool called Google Maps, an online mapping service similar to MapQuest. Google uses map sources from companies like NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas, as well as satellite data from DigitalGlobe and MDA Federal, to create interactive maps. You can use Google maps to view an address' location or get driving directions to a particular destination.
 The Google Earth application |
Google Maps has several view modes. The map view is a basic road map, satellite view overlays a road map on top of satellite photos of the region, terrain view creates a topographic map with a road map overlay, and the traffic view uses red, yellow and green to indicate congested major roadways in the area. Street view mode is available in several U.S. cities. Selecting street view in such locations as Orlando, Fla., gives you the option to view photos taken from street level. You can navigate through the city by clicking on arrows in the photographs, and you can rotate your view 360 degrees.
toolbar:
The Google Toolbar is another handy add-on available for Firefox or Internet Explorer users. The toolbar has customizable buttons. Each button maps to a particular function, which can include anything from viewing a Web site's PageRank to translating a word from one language to another.
 The Google Desktop application |
Google Desktop is another application you can download for free. This program lets you search your computer the way you would search the Internet using the Google search engine. You can also choose to download Google Gadgets, computer programs that integrate seamlessly into your desktop. Each gadget does something different. Gadgets include clocks, calendars, news feeds and weather reports.
Google revenue:
Unlike some Internet companies, Google has multiple ways of generating revenue beyond private investment or selling shares of its stock. Google uses three methods to partner with merchants and advertisers: Google Checkout, Google AdWords and Google AdSense.
 In 2004, Google became a publicly traded company on NASDAQ. |
Google Checkout is a service designed to make online purchases easier for both the consumer and the retailer. On the consumer end, users create a free Google Checkout account. Part of the account creation process includes entering a credit or debit card number, which Google stores in a secure database. When the user visits a retailer that subscribes to Google Checkout, he or she can click on the checkout option and Google facilitates the transaction. This means that the user doesn't have to enter a card number every time he or she makes a purchase.
Retailers can set up Google Checkout accounts for free, but as of August 2008, Google charges a 2 percent plus 20-cent fee per transaction. For example, if a customer buys a $10 item from a merchant, Google will charge that merchant 40 cents for that transaction.
Another way Google generates revenue is through a pair of Web advertising services called AdWords and AdSense. With AdWords, advertisers can submit ads to Google that include a list of keywords relating to the product, service or business. When a Google user searches the Web using one or more of those keywords, the ad appears on the SERP in a sidebar. The advertiser pays Google every time a user clicks on the ad.
AdSense is similar, except that instead of displaying ads on a Google SERP, a webmaster can choose to integrate ads into his or her own site. Google's spiders crawl the site and analyze the content. Then, Google selects ads that contain keywords relevant to the webmaster's site. The webmaster can customize the location and color of the sidebar containing the ads. Every time someone clicks on an ad on the webmaster's site, the webmaster receives a portion of the ad revenue (Google gets the rest).
With both AdWords and AdSense, Google's strategy is to provide targeted advertising to users. Google believes that by providing advertising relevant to the information for which the user is already searching, the chances of someone following the ad are greatly increased.
Google Equipment:
How many servers does Google have? The company is quiet about the subject, but estimates range from 200,000 to more than 450,000 machines.
Google uses servers for different tasks. Web servers receive and process user queries, sending the request on to the next appropriate server. Index servers store Google's indexes and search results. Document servers to store search summaries, user information, gmail and Google Docs files. Ad servers store the advertisements Google displays on search pages.
Google divides the information on each index server into 64 MB blocks. There are three copies of each block of data, and each copy is stored on a different server running on a separate power strip. The blocks of data are distributed semi-randomly so that no two servers have the exact same collection of data blocks. That way, if there's a problem with one server, the data will still exist in other machines. Using multiple copies of data to prevent an interruption in service is called redundancy. Find out more in How the Google File System Works.
Here's a list of the Google Servers used by different services as they're returned in the HTTP headers
| Server Name | Services |
| GWS (Google Web Server) | Web Search, Image Search and many other services |
| GFE/1.3 (Google Front-End) | Gmail, Calendar, Picasa Web Albums, Docs, Blogger, orkut, Reader and many other services |
| GWS-GRFE/0.50 | Groups |
| bsfe (Blog Search Front-End) | Blog Search |
| OFE/0.1 (Ocean Front-End) | Book Search, Patent Search, Catalogs (Ocean is Google Book Search's code-name) |
| SMS search frontend 1.0 | Google SMS |
| Search-History HTTP Server | Web History |
| Auto-Completion Server | Google Suggest, Firefox/Google Toolbar auto-complete |
| TrustRank Frontend | Safe Browsing |
| GCS/1.0 | Safe Browsing |
| SFE/0.8 | Finance |
| FTS (C)1997-2007 Interactive Data Managed Solutions AG | Finance charts |
| asfe | Base |
| mediaserver | Base (images) |
| cffe | Product Search (Froogle) |
| btfe | Thumbnails: Image Search, Google Video, Youtube |
| Video Stats Server | Google Video |
| cachefe:image (Cache Front-End) | Picasa Web photos |
| staticfe | interface images (Picasa Web) |
| ctcserver | Google Call ( www.google.com/call ) |
| GoogleChartServer/1.0 | used for dynamically-generated charts (e.g.: Google Video's stats) |
| NFE/1.0 (News Front-End) | News |
| mfe (Maps Front-End) | Maps |
| Keyhole Server 2.4 | Maps, Earth (imagery) |
| PSFE/4.0 | Alerts |
| igfe (iGoogle Front-End) | iGoogle |
| COMINST/1.0 | Testing software installation (Pack, Picasa) |
| TWS/0.9 (Translation Web Server) | Translate |
| mws (Music Web Server) | Music Search |
| R2FE/1.0 (Reviews Front-End) | Reviews (Music, Movies) |
| zfe | Reviews |
| pfe | Co-op |
| codesite/5477219 | Code |
| ga-reporting-fe | Analytics reporting |
| ucfe | Analytics |
| lpfe | Analytics (www.google-analytics.com/siteopt.js) |
| Toolbar Gaia User Service Server | Google Toolbar authentication |
| cafe (Ad Conversion Front-End) | Conversions |
| AdClickServer | Google test ad server |
| Google Trends | Google Trends |
| TFE/0.0 (Transliteration Front-End) | Google Indic Transliteration |
| Apache | most Labs services |
A master computer manages each set of servers. The master computer's job is to keep track of which servers hold each block of data in the event of a catastrophe. If one server goes down, the master computer redirects all traffic to the other servers containing the same data.
Google at early ages:
In 1998, Google's equipment was relatively modest. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin used Stanford equipment and donated machines to run Google's search engine duties. The equipment at that time included:
- Two 300-megahertz (MHz) Dual Pentium II servers with 512 megabytes (MB) of memory
- A four-processor F50 IBM RS6000 computer with 512 MB of memory
- A dual-processor Sun Ultra II computer with 256 MB of memory
- Several hard drives (some of which were housed in a box covered in LEGO bricks) ranging from 4 to 9 gigabytes (GB) for a total of more than 350 GB of storage space
Google company culture:
Google has come a long way since Sergey Brin and Larry Page networked a few computers together at Stanford. What started as a modest project is now a multibillion-dollar global organization that employs more than 19,000 people around the world. Brin and Page are still very much involved with Google's operations -- they're Presidents of Google's Technology and Products divisions, respectively.
In September 2008, Google's market capitalization figure (Google's stock price multiplied by the number of outstanding company shares) was more than $145 billion. Google's stock is listed in NASDAQ as GOOG, and in late 2008 Google had more than 314 million outstanding shares in the marketplace .
 The Googleplex -- Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. |
Google's headquarters are in Mountain View, Calif. Google cheekily calls its campus the Googleplex -- a combination of the words "Google" and "complex" and a play on the term googolplex: One followed by a googol of zeroes. Life at the Googleplex is pretty sweet. Here's just a small list of the amenities you can find there:
- Several café stations where employees can gather to eat free food and have conversations
- Snack rooms stocked with goodies ranging from candy to healthy foods like carrots and yogurt
- Exercise rooms
- Game rooms with video games, foosball, pool tables and ping-pong
- A baby grand piano for those who enjoy tickling the ivories
Google has asserted itself as one of the most dominant forces on the Internet. Still, the company says its mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". With a goal that lofty, it's a good bet that the people behind Google feel their work is just beginning.
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