Google’s beginnings: Search engine development

In 1993, Sergey received with honors his Bachelor of Science at the University of Maryland. And initiated his graduate study in computer science at Stanford University on a graduate fellowship. During an orientation for new students at Stanford, Sergey Brin met Larry Page.

Given the similar academic backgrounds in both of their families, they understood the importance of citations in research papers. And together authored a paper titled “The Anatomy of a Large Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.”

From this point they developed the PageRank algorithm, and realized that it could be used to construct a search engine far superior to the existing ones.

Using Larry’s basic HTML programming skills, both boys set up a simple search page for users (they didn’t have a web page developer and thus couldn’t create anything visually elaborated).

As the search engine grew in acceptance in the midst of Stanford students, it required additional computing power to handle the searches, so they began using any computer part they could find to build up their servers. In August 1996, the earliest version of Google was available on the Internet. Pretty soon they had 10,000 searches a month.

Interesting note: Google’s name comes from intentionally misspelling googol that is the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros.

Despite the undisputable superiority of Google’s results, Larry and Sergey had difficulty selling their idea or funding their project, because at the time there was no business model attached to search engines. Nobody had yet come up with the idea of converting profit from search.

During this period, Excite even got to the point of almost buying Google, but finally walked away from the negotiations table.

Larry and Sergey decided to continue on with the project. They discovered a way to include ads with the search result (what we now call AdSense). The idea was first found on a site called Overture, and the boys came to a settlement with its owner. From there on, Google was catapulted to preceding heights.



Join the Discussion
Write something…
Recent messages
ecomtom Premium
Thank you. Was not aware of much of Google's history. Tom
Reply
Henry-II Premium
You’re most welcome! I’m glad you found this information useful! Keep well!
Reply
TeamIceCream Premium
Hi Henry

WOW - you always do the most interesting trainings! ;-)

Thank you for the history about Google. I remember those early years - I didn't like Google at all and never used them. I preferred http://www.Mamma.com or http://www.AllTheWeb.com. Mamma's slogan was "The Mother of all search engines", but today they are only about coupons, it looks like. It also looks like AllTheWeb has been taken over by Yahoo.

I remember that I got a free sewing pattern from http://TuCows.com, which was a winner. But today, TuCows is a very different website than what it used to be.

And I loved your comics too - you are very creative! Although I sincerely hope you are wrong with your prediction to which extent Google will invade our privacy!

Much enjoyed - thank you, Henry!
Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)
Reply
Henry-II Premium
Hi Sharlee!

Thank you very much! That’s very kind of you! I greatly appreciate your comment and value very much your encouragement. :)

I didn’t know about those sites. Thank you very much for that background concerning those popular sites at the time of Google’s rise. I will check them up to get a bit more acquainted with them. I could even briefly state them here as existent during that initial stage of search engines (as were Excite and Yahoo!)

I’ve always found it interesting to learn a bit about the origins of things that after time and lots of effort have become extremely popular. I like to get acquainted with what challenges they encountered in their first stages and how they overcame.

Thank you very much for your complement concerning the comic. :) I hope the idea of running a comic simultaneously and just partially related to the content doesn’t distract readers. I’d like to hear about your impression. And as you hope concerning Google’s future, I also hope too! :) :) :)
Reply
TeamIceCream Premium
Hi Henry

Regarding the comic... No, I didn't find it distracting at all. In fact, I actually found it refreshing. ;-)

It broke the huge chunks of text (not only written but also the factualness of it) and made it seem more "digestible".

I couldn't help but smile every time I read the little comic strip, but then your first sentence below it recaptivated my attention and I read on seamlessly.

It worked very well in my humble opinion, I loved it, Henry! Well done! ;-)
Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)
Reply
Henry-II Premium
Hi Sharlee!

Thank you so much for your feedback concerning the comic in the middle of the training. I’m just getting used to the idea and am grateful you took your time to give me your honest impression.

I haven’t seen others doing it in blogs or trainings and it’s natural to have a bit of concern if it really works. My intention was exactly what you have expressed, so I’ll continue to test this concept.

Thank you very much for being so kind. I greatly appreciate your friendship. I owe you so much! Keep well! :) :) :)
Reply
lesabre Premium
Thanks for the share Henry
Reply
Henry-II Premium
Hey Michael! You're most welcome! Thank you very much for your comment.
Reply
mbouteiller Premium Plus
Wow Henry, you're an excellent writer! Great history story and this must have taken some time to research all this.

I didn't know all this.. I can understand Google more now.

Thank you... Ya, lol... I love your cartoons!!

Monica
Reply
Henry-II Premium
Hi, Monica!

Thank you very much! You’re very nice. :) I had been interested in Google’s background and started doing a bit of research for personal purposes. But once I had gone into it, I realized that my approach to writing posts and finding keywords slightly changed. So I thought “Hey, this might be good to share with the community.” :)

Keep well! I’m always delighted to hear from you. All the best! :)
Reply
JeanLouis87 Premium
Splendid!! This is the kind of information that translates into positive outcomes (and $$$$$$!)
Congratulations Henry-ll
Reply
Henry-II Premium
Thank you very much JeanLouis87! It's great you found this information useful! I believe the way we approach Google will change our relationship with search engines. Keep well!
Reply
Top