On September 7, 1998, the world witnessed the birth of an amazing success story. That's when Google was born, and the rest as they say is history.
Wow, what an understatement! Calling Google amazing is like saying Tiger Woods is merely a great golfer. The
fact of the matter is, superlatives can't even begin to measure the impact Google has had on our society, or the world at large for that matter.
So, how did Google get to this point? Well, the answer to that question can be broken down into three critical categories:
1. Brilliant management: Google's staff includes some of the most experienced technology and business professionals in Silicon Valley and around the world. This fine team is led of course by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google has 5,680 full time employees as of December 31, 2005, many of whom are technical/engineering.
2. Brilliant marketing: With a user base in the millions, Google is able to identify points of friction quickly and smooth them out. Google's point of distinction however, is anticipating needs not yet articulated by their global audience, then meeting them with products and services that set new standards. This constant dissatisfaction with the way things are is ultimately the driving force behind the world's best search engine.
3. A brilliant game plan: Google does not accept being the best as an endpoint, but a starting point. Through innovation and iteration, Google takes something that works well and improves upon it in unexpected ways. Search works well for properly spelled words, but what about typos? One engineer saw a need and created a spell checker that seems to read a user's mind. Realizing it takes too long to search from a WAP phone, Google's wireless group developed Google Number Search to reduce entries from three keystrokes per letter to one. Google always seems to be at least one step ahead of th.competion.
So, where did the name Googl.come from? The name "Google" is a play on the word "googol," which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, "Mathematics and the Imagination" by Kasner and James Newman. It refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google's use of the term reflects th.company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web.
Let's take a quick look at a few of Google's many accomplishments:
Google AdWords
In October 2000, Google announced its new content-targeted advertising program. Google AdWords was a huge "out-of-the- box" success, boasting well over 100,000 advertisers to date.
AdWords Select
In February 2002, Google launched AdWords Select, an updated version of the AdWords self-service advertising system with a number of new enhancements, including cost-per-click (CPC)- based pricing.
Froogle
In December 2002, Google introduced a beta version of Froogle, a play on the word "frugal," a product search engine that enables users to search for millions of products across the web.
Google AdSense
In June 2003, Google anounced AdSense, a program designed to maximize the revenue potential of a website by serving highly relevant ads specific to the content of the page, launches with initial partners, including ABC.com, HowStuffWorks, Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc., Lycos Europe, Knight Ridder Digital, About.com, CNET and others.
Google Deskbar
In November 2003, Google announced the Google Deskbar, a free software download which enables users to search Google without using a web browser.
Blogger
Also, in 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs and became the home for Blogger, a leading provider of services for those inclined to share their thoughts with the world through online journals (weblogs).
Gmail
On April 1, 2004, Google announced a new web-based mail service called Gmail that will include a gigabyte of free storage for Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it also unleashed a Google Pack a free collection of safe and useful software for improving the web experience.
So, what's next? Only Google knows for sure. But you can bet the world will be watching!
Carmella Giovanni is a free-lance writer currently living in San Francisco, California. Carmella may be reached at
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