How Does Google Work?
Google is the world’s most popular web search engine, but it has also become a household name for many other internet tools like Gmail for emails, Google Maps for directions and Google Earth for satellite images of the globe. These tools and others are part of the vast array of services that make up GOOGLE, a multifaceted technology conglomerate whose products and services span the internet, mobile devices and even home appliances.
The story of GOOGLE begins with the work of two Ph.D students at Stanford University named Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The two developed a simple algorithm that revolutionized how search engines found and ranked web pages. Their creation, dubbed Backrub, became the foundation for the company they founded in 1996 and incorporated as Google Inc. in 1998.
From the start, GOOGLE focused on creating innovative web-based tools to make life online easier and more enjoyable. The company quickly expanded from its humble two-man startup into one of the biggest and richest tech companies in the world. In 2015, GOOGLE restructured and spun off some of its business into separate parent companies including the health firm Calico, tech industry private equity firm CapitalG, robotics developer Intrinsic and “moonshot” technology development firm X Development.
Despite its large product portfolio, GOOGLE continues to focus on search as its core service. The company uses its massive data center network to process more than 3.5 billion search requests per day and delivers the best results possible from the enormous amount of information that is scanned by its computers.
In order to find the right pages to deliver, GOOGLE completes three steps: crawling, indexing and ranking. Essentially, Google sends out bots (robots) to visit as much of the internet as possible and determine what is on web pages. These bots then add the information to a database of known pages. Some of this information comes from already existing pages that Google knows about, but the majority is discovered through a process called crawling.
After Google compiles the information, it goes through an indexing process where it looks for keywords that appear in a search query and determines how important each page is to the overall topic. The more important the keyword is, the higher up a page is ranked. This step is also done on an ongoing basis, since the information on web pages is constantly changing.
Some of the information that Google processes is provided directly by its business partners, such as airlines, retailers and manufacturers, who provide Google with data about their products. This allows Google to display up-to-date and accurate information for people searching in their region. Other information is crowdsourced from millions of people who contribute reviews, photos, questions and answers, address updates and other types of local information to Google Search and Maps in over 220 countries and territories.
