A search engine that changed the world
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................ 3
Background information ............................................................ 4
Chapter 1 – General information about Google ....................... 5
Chapter 2 – The search engine of Google ................................ 6
Chapter 3 – The corporate of Google and its culture ............... 7
Chapter 4 – The products of Google .................................. 8 – 9
Chapter 5 – Criticism of Google ............................................ 10
Chapter 6 – Future plans and cooperation .............................. 11
Conclusions .............................................................................. 12
Reflection ................................................................................. 13
Bibliography ............................................................................ 14
Google's Happy New Year! logo – January 1, 2007
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Introduction
I have decided to carry out a research about Google, the most
popular search engine that has been created.
Google is not only a search engine, it is also a "way of life" for a lot
of people who surf the net, including me, due to the services it
provides.
The rationale behind my choice is the relevance of the subject to my
own life.
Every time I want to find something on the net – I use Google.
I think Google attracted me from the beginning, because of its
simplicity, usefulness and the external services it provides.
Moreover, I was always curious about how Google works.
It has always fascinated me, the fact that when you type a few words
on Google on any subject you are interested in finding out
information, the search engine finds in the endless information the
most essential sources you need and all that in a fraction of a second.
Another reason I chose this subject is because it influences the entire
world in all aspects of life.
First, I plan to talk about the history of Google and to answer
general questions like "How Google was first formed?", "Who were
the founders of Google?", "How was Google in the beginning?" and
many more questions.
Second, I will present the method on which the search engine of
Google is based.
Third, I will tell you about the corporate of Google and its work
culture.
Fourth, I will tell you about useful products that Google provides
for its users.
Fifth, I will expose the dark side of Google by showing you the
criticism about it.
Eventually, I will write about Google's future plans and I will sum
up my study with a few conclusions.
I plan to carry out my research mostly by finding information on the
web and using written articles and newspaper reports.
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Background Information
The mission of Google as is quoted on its site, by the words
"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and
make it universally accessible and useful".
As a first step to fulfilling that mission, Google's founders
Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a new search engine
that took root in a Stanford University dorm room and it quickly
spread to information seekers around the globe.
Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest search
engine - an easy to use free service that usually returns relevant
results in a fraction of a second.
When you visit www.google.com or one of the dozens of other
Google domains, you'll be able to find information in many
different languages.
What is the meaning of the name Google?
"Googol" is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100
zeros.
The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American
mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized by his
book – "Mathematics and the Imagination".
The term reflects the company's mission to organize the
immense amount of information available on the web.
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Chapter 1
General information about Google
Google is an American public corporation, specializing in
internet search and online advertising.
The company is in Mountain View, California and has 15,900
full-time employees (as of September, 2007).
The revenue of the company is 10.6 billion dollar and its net
income is 3.07 billion dollar, and it keeps growing.
The key people of Google are:
Sergey Brin, Technology President, Co-Founder.
Larry E. Page, Products President, Co-Founder.
Eric E. Schmidt, Director.
George Reyes, Finance manager.
Google began in January 1996, as a research project by Larry
Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford
University, California.
The founders originally were determined to purchase the domain
"Googol.com" but it was already registered by another person.
After they decided to call their site "Google", they settled at
Mountain View in a complex they bought from SGI and they
called the place "Googleplex".
Google's corporate philosophy includes "Don't be evil" and
"Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun",
that shows the relaxed corporate culture of Google.
The Google search site attracted a large amount of people
because of its simple design and usability.
One of the reasons for the growth of Google is the additional
services it provides to its users.
As a result of successful acquisitions, new products
developments and partnerships, the company has expanded to
other areas, including web-based email, online mapping and
video sharing.
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Chapter 2
The search engine of Google
Google is the largest search engine on the web.
Since August 2007, Google is the most used search engine on
the web with a 53.6% market share.
In Israel 88% of the surfers use Google.
The services that Google provides to its users run on several
server farms, each consists of thousands of low-cost computers
of Linux.
The company doesn't reveal detailed information about its
system.
Although, some people in the New York Times estimated that
Google has over 450,000 servers around the globe in 25
different sites.
Google uses an algorithm called PageRank (like the name of its
inventor Larry Page) to rank web pages that match a given
search string.
The method of ranking sites determines the importance of the
page by the number of times you get into this page in a random
wandering, or in other words, by the popularity of the page.
There are a few more variables that effect the search results but
the company keeps it secret.
An interesting use of the Google search is that it can help
translators to determine the most common way to express an
idea in the English language and in other languages by finding
in Google which expression is the most common.
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Chapter 3
The corporate of Google and its culture
Google is known for its relaxed corporate culture.
In January 2007, Google was chosen by Fortune Magazine as
the best company to work for.
Google's corporate philosophy is based on ordinary principles
with innovative ones including "You can make money without
doing evil" and "You can be serious without a suit".
Moreover, Google's relaxed corporate culture can also be seen
through their logos of holidays and special occasions.
The headquarters of Google is called Googleplex and it is
decorated in a unique form.
In the lobby there is a piano and lava lamps.
The hallways are full
The Googleplex.
of exercise balls and
bicycles.
Each employee has access to the corporate entertainment center.
Furthermore, there is a massage room, video games, football,
pool table and ping pong in the area of the complex.
All Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their
work time (one day per week) on projects that interest them.
Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News,
Orkut, and AdSense rose from this decision (see explanation on
these services on the next page).
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Chapter 4
The products of Google
Google has created services and tools for the general public
as well as business companies.
The services that Google provides to its users include
advertising, web-based email, maps, video sharing and many
more applications.
Most of Google's revenue is from advertising.
In 2006, the company reported that its total revenue from
advertising is $10.492 billion (compared to $10.604 billion total
revenue).
Google AdWords allows web advertisers to display
advertisements in Google's search results and in return they pay
Google either per-click on the link or per-view of the
advertisement.
Similarly, Google AdSense allows website owners to display
advertisements of Google on their own site and to earn money
every time ads are clicked.
Besides the web search service of Google which is a major
factor of the company's success, there are more search services
that were created from the technology of the original search.
These include the Image Search of Google, Google News, the
price comparison site Google Product Search, Google Maps and
more.
In 2004, Google launched web based email service, known as
Gmail.
Gmail contains spam-filtering technology and the ability to
search in the email by the support of Google's search.
The revenue from the email based on the AdWords service that
places advertisements is connected to the content of the email.
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Chapter 4
In early 2006, the company launched Google Video, which not
only allows users to view videos but also to publish their own
video files.
Google has also developed several desktop applications,
including Google Earth, a mapping program powered by
satellites.
Google Earth is considered to be remarkably accurate and
extremely detailed so that in some cities you can see the color of
vehicles.
Moreover, there are applications for astronomy lovers as Google
Moon, Google Mars and even an application that shows the
entire galaxy called Google Sky.
Another application is Google Google Earth.
Labs, which is a collection of
incomplete applications that are still being tested by the general
public.
Google also purchased the popular free video sharing web site
called You Tube for $1.65 billion on November 2006.
Nowadays, Google is involved in every aspect of life and
because of that some people claim that Google became a
monopoly but I think it just improves people's lives.
Chapter 5
Criticism of Google
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In spite of the services provided, the widening of knowledge
and the improvement of life because of Google there is still
criticism about it.
Many market analysts are finding that as Google grows, the
company is becoming more "corporate".
In 2005, articles in The New York Times and other sources began
announcing that Google had lost its anti-corporate, no evil
philosophy.
In an effort to maintain the company's unique culture, Google
appointed a Chief Culture Officer.
The purpose of the Chief Culture Officer is to develop and
maintain the culture.
Another claim is that, Google has been criticized for having
salaries below industry standards.
For example, some system administrators earn no more than
$35,000 per year.
Furthermore, there was a complaint about Google Earth, many
major cities have such detailed images so that anyone can see
almost anything on the planet including places that no one
should see.
Consequently, there have been some concerns about national
security.
Eventually, there is the problem of copyrights, mostly in the
area of Google Book Search due to Google's attempt to make all
the texts searchable.
Chapter 6
Future plans and cooperation
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I will end my project with encouraging news about the plans
of Google for the future and the cooperation between Google
and other companies.
In 2007, some reports including in Yedioth Ahronoth
(5.11.2007) announced that Google was planning the release of
its own mobile phone, possibly a competitor to Apple's iPhone.
It is said that Google will cooperate with 30 different mobile
companies and its target will be to create a cellular phone with
an open source.
Nevertheless, don't forget the services that are still in
construction and not ready yet.
For example, Google Web Accelerator (an instrument that
increases internet's speed), Google Page Creator (a tool that
allows you to create your own site), Google Trends (a search
engine that compares trends and shows which is more popular)
and many other useful products.
If you are going to ask Google what's next?
They probably will say that it's hard to say because they don't
talk much about what lies ahead and if you are still curious to
find out you can look at Google Labs service.
I am sure that in the near future as well as in the distant future
we will continue to see extraordinary things from Google.
Conclusions
During my research on Google, I have learned that Google can
be a very useful tool to all of us.
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Moreover, I have found that Google can be useful not only for
people who want to search something on the web but also for
scientists, astronomy explorers, youngsters and even for people
who investigating our language.
I have also discovered Google's negative aspects.
I found out, that there are employees that aren't satisfied with the
company and their salaries.
In addition, I realized that there are a few problems with
national security among Google's products.
In spite of the above, in my opinion, the positive things that
Google contributed to society are more than the negative ones.
Finally, I discovered that Google influences people's sites due to
its PageRank system that determines site's importance.
Furthermore, I am aware of more applications that belongs to
Google and due to that I am using my time more efficiently.
In conclusion, being loyal only to Google isn't really wise
because there are more sites like it on the enormous web but I
recommend turning it to your homepage website.
If I try to summarize Google's contribution to the whole world
in a simple sentence, I will say that Google has made
complicated problems simple and has made almost the entire
information available to everyone anywhere.
Reflection
The process of preparing the project took me a long period of
time but it was satisfying in the end.
The study included several stages.
First, I decided on the topic of the project because it interested
me very much and one of my friends suggested it.
Second, I started to look for information on the net, in
newspapers and even in scientific articles.
The third stage was the longest and it included reading
information on the net and in articles, scanning for relevant
information, sifting the unnecessary parts and to organize the
material efficiently and wisely.
Afterwards, I started to write my project subject after subject
while I paid attention to the words I wrote in every sentence.
The project itself includes a wide variety of subjects and I think
you can learn a lot from it.
I think, very honestly, that I have done a pretty good project.
The point is that I have learned a lot from it as well as enjoyed
doing it.
Bibliography
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 Internet websites:
1. Google corporate information, Company Overview:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/index.html
2. Google corporate information, Google Milestones:
http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html
3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Israel, Information
about Google:
http://www.seoisrael.co.il/
4. Wikipedia, Google:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
5. Wikipedia, Google search:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_search
6. Wikipedia, History of Google:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google
7. Ynet, August 2007 – "Does Google a monopoly?":
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3442879,00.html
8. Google, Holiday Logos and Events:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/holidaylogos.html
 Written articles & Newspaper reports:
1. The Marker, April 2006 – "Internet".
2. Yedioth Ahronoth, 5 May 2007 – "Cooperation between
Google and cellular manufacturers".
3. Haaretz, 25 September 2007 – "Google's success secret".
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