Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Google is widely held to be the fastest and most efficient search engine for looking up simple words or phrases, and is a wonder of the Internet world.
How Does this Wonder Work?
Rather than relying on the contents of a page to determine the rankings for any given search, a page's position is determined by how many links there are to it on the Internet. These links in turn are ranked, with links from more popular pages (ie those that are well-linked to themselves) weighted higher than pages with few links.
What Happens Next?
The overall effect of this is to give very accurate and quick searches first time. If you are looking for a company or well-known brand, you'll be sure to get its homepage in the top five responses, and usually it's sitting there right at the top1. This is because the most referenced page for a big company name is usually their own homepage, especially from other well-established companies.
How Can You Get in on the Act?
Google's capabilities can be put into your own webpage, with five versions ranging from an affiliate programme (which pays you a small amount each time it is used), to a free version, to a $2000 dollar per month 'Gold' version which can serve eight million queries a year.
What Else can Google do for Me?
Google also has a whole host of additional capabilities, including:
Multiple Language Searches which enable you to choose the languages you search for.
Caching means that when the page has since moved or been deleted, you can still see the version Google bookmarked.
Number of Results allows you to choose the number of results Google returns, between 10 and 100.
Open Directory is Netscape's Open Directory which has been integrated into Google, so if there are Open Directory entries for your search terms, these will show up. Realnames is similarly supported.
SafeSearch is an option available to prevent children from finding adult material.
Similar Pages is an option which finds, well, similar pages really.
Email Results means you can even email the results to a friend. Marvellous.
