Googling Google

Google has been a staple in the average internet user's diet. Need to search? Go to Google. Need to spell check? Go to Google. Need your email? Go to Google. At this point I think it is easy to see that Google is embedded in your internet instincts.

As a kid 5th and 6th grade are important times in development. This is around the first time I remember using the internet. You had AOL, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, MSN, Dog Pile, and Google as search engine possibilities. Sure you can still find these engines around, but none are nearly as prevalent as Google. Google gave the results that you wanted as a kid trying to get information about White Lions (yes, I did a project on them). As a kid you are going to go with the easiest and most efficient website, not one that is cluttered with useless "news" stuff.

As much as people praise Google for their algorithm (which they do deserve), there are other factors in why someone uses the website. When was the last time you saw a banner ad on Google? Now what about Yahoo or MSN? Thinking about having images on a website now is no big deal, but with dial-up every kilobyte counted. I'm sure you remember the timer that went along with your search results amazed at how much it search and how quickly it returned. Google was primarily a search engine, it did its job fast, and started receiving the traffic it deserved. With the traffic they were able to expand, refine the algorithm(s), continue being primarily a search engine, but with extra benefits.

The sheer scale of Google now is what is powering it. Google is in everything you touch now, the tablets, smart phone, computer browsers. It mines the data to help make a better product. Yes, it can be a little scary to know, but as long as they are not building Skynet and are safe with my data I don't think I will care. I am okay with being a "beta" tester, if it brings me a better product, why would I not? I encourage you to do a little research on Google to actually see how large it is, petabytes of data when 10 years ago gigabytes were large. The algorithms ability to be able to search through that much data fast is a true testament to how great of an algorithm it really is. Technology has improved, but even with the best technology poor programming would still reign supreme.