The Google Journey: From a noun to a verb

One often comes across questions beginning with ‘What? Why? How? When? Where?’ – In today’s time, these queries have an unwavering answer- Google it. The whole world is familiar with Google and its powers- the powers of generating not only an answer but a story behind a question and the powers of presenting a broad insight, of the past or the future, of any situation. Many search engines were invented in the past years but none could thrive as long as this one. Now, the word Google is considered the most relatable synonym for the word ‘search’. 

Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the year 1998 as a part of their college project, Google derived its identity from the term ‘googol’ which is a mathematical reference for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. Sean, the creator of the name, accidentally misspelled it as ‘google’ which was liked by the inventors, and voila! – Google came to be known, a significance of providing vast information. And, on August 19, 2004, Google was opened for the public. 

The layout of the search engine made its first impression, which earned innumerable plaudits. According to observations, the first time people tried Google, they saw a clear white page with only the logo and a search box. So they kept waiting for the whole page to load, only to find out that it was a formulated design. Unlike the previous search engines cluttered with all sorts of images and news, Google’s page invites netizens with a clean and organized positive visual space. The list of websites generated in the order of their accessibility adds to the user’s convenience. A satisfactory search result leads to a satisfied user. 

Providing a pertinent search result is considered the most valuable thing in any search engine. So many people waste away hours chasing links and content relating to their topic. Google holds a good search algorithm that does the work of digging out web pages containing the keywords typed in the search box and designating ranks, called PageRanks, to relatable links. The search engine crawls through the data and retrieves the desirable content. Interlinked websites make it more convenient to find information. Another good feature is its speed. Fast loading sites are of public preference. Thus, Google provides preferential treatment to websites that load quickly. Moreover, Google had come up with an updated version called Google instant, launched in the year 2010, that displayed information as quickly as possible, even as they typed their queries in the search box that generated a list of similar searches. 

In August 2015, Google opened up about its plans of reorganizing its interests as a conglomerate called Alphabet Inc. So, Sundar Pichai took over as the CEO of Google, while Larry Page became the CEO of Alphabet Inc. And the advent of the company’s expansion was with the acquisitions and partnerships beyond the search engine. One of the most successful acquisitions was when Google acquired YouTube, a video sharing and publishing platform, in 2006. A smart move made by them was their chain of services, which substantially targeted the provision of efficiency in one’s day-to-day activities. 

Some of these services include applications designed for work management and productivity (Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google sheets). A medium for sending emails(Gmail), for instant, messaging and video chats(Duo, Hangouts, and Meets), cloud storage (Google Drive), a navigation system (Google Maps), language translation (Google Translate), and much more. The Google Play store app played a huge role in its popularity as it enables the installation of any application. This significantly increased the utility of Android and Chromebook. 

The search engine has owned about 225 organizations by now. That’s huge! Well, currently Google aims at making bigger achievements in the Cloud world. So, could anyone challenge Google’s dominance? It is believed that in 10 or 20 years of time Google will still be considered a big company because of its current ambitions. Revenue no longer seems to be the company’s main concern. Instead, it primarily focuses on innovating and bringing real user data for people to refer to. 

It is because of the quality and goal of providing efficiency to its users that Google is where it is now. Because it started strong and just kept getting better and better, it has become the go-to search engine of the Internet. 

A free service is all that one needs, to make the optimum use of it. 

Just Google it!