Google Enterpises

Every day I look around and I see innovation. Sometimes even in the simplest of places. We use these tools and do not even think twice about the cunning that it took to make this possible. Businesses like Google have taken something so broad and embodied it into a house hold symbol. As simple as Google seems when you pull up their website, it takes cutting edge ideas to keep the website and employees running full.

Online today, we have access to various search engines. Even so, people continue to choose Google above all other competitors. As to why this is, most people chalk it up to simple ease of use. However, business men and geeks alike know that there is far more to Google then meets the eye.

Google is a fine oiled machine. Even as I began to look into how Google works, I found myself lost in links to different sites explaining different terms that I was unfamiliar with. In today society, I like to think of myself as fairly computer savvy. I was lost. I never imagined that something that seemed so simple, was really complicated and advanced. Not only is it considered advance in comparison to other companies, but even more so between the search engines by themselves. The true difference between them is in how it works.

We all know we will get different results from different sites when we search the web. As to why this is; it’s all in what they call search engine relevancy algorithms. Algorithms are essentially a set of rules on which each engine ranks websites. As to each individual site’s sets of rules, it is a secret well kept as it is critical to the success of each business. These rules are generally based on similar things.

First of which is the location/frequency method. This is obviously a reference to keywords, where they are and how often they appear. The location that holds the most relevance is in the title or in the introduction paragraph. It also calculates the use frequency of the word in comparison to others. The location/frequency method holds the most weight in site ranking. As simple as it apparently is, every company has its own twist on this method.

The most predominant difference is the websites that are indexed. Some sites have more indexed. This is due to the fact that engines also penalize sites for spamming a word or phrase. Other reasons include advertising and interest conflicts. These weigh heavily with Yahoo!, unlike Google who includes both sponsored and non-sponsored sites evenly. Users of these sites also have a say in the ranking based on their opinions and complaints, as they do in most businesses.

As time goes on, these engines become more adept to the web. Unknowingly, you are also helping these engines with their rankings. Every time you search a topic, you begin to sift through the links. Those links that you chose can gain rank boosts. While the sites that are passed over can lose rank or possibly even lose their index status completely.

Google uses what is known as PageRank. This system was created by the founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page at Stanford University. What makes this system different from other search engines is the way it sifts through pages with similar content. It ranks every site with a 0-10, it bases this off links to your page. These are similar to a vote for a site in Google PageRank. From there, it sifts out pages that users don’t chose. Of course the ones that it sifts out are pages of similar rank that are not chosen. The other significant difference is the query system that Google now uses.

Unlike other search engines Google has the most extensive system for queries. It has used hundreds of employees to enable the search engine to recognize the true topic of your search. When you ask a question, it won’t bring up the words in your question as if they were keywords. It answers the question and uses the answer as a keyword for your search. Other sites have struggled with this feature. However, it is what Google uses to set itself apart from the pack. Also Google is known as company that basks the knowledge that they are the fastest and most accurate search engine on the web. As to why this is; we look toward how they manage their data.

We start with how data is stored normally. Servers are the main source of the information that we access. These servers are connected via the internet. However, Google uses their servers for indexing other servers’ information. In order to make these indexes quickly accessible and cheep to maintain, Google uses a cluster of cheap servers. While at the same time, it allows making the repair of servers quick and cheap; while there is no interruption of service during these periods of repair. Even though there are many servers, they act as one large server. If one computer goes down, two others are there to take its place during repair. Cheap cost of service is important to Google profits as a company.

As a search engine, it is curious how Google actually makes a profit. This is where the true genius of Google shows. In coordination with their use of cheap and efficient equipment, they are able to make large profits off, essentially, advertisement. Similar to the yellow pages, companies pay to have their sites indexed. Some pay even more for sponsored links. Even the banners you seen on every major website cost a large amount of capital. Keywords can actually be outright bought specifically by a website. Google being the top search engine even sells their catalog to other engines. Last but not least, they gather market and consumer data to sell to other companies. Google makes a profit from this far beyond its originator, single businesses with limited consumer data that was typically purchased by telemarketer companies. Google’s future aspirations seem small in comparison to the track that they are currently on.

Google in 2005 reported a $6 billion dollar profit. This is all due to Google making advertisement more efficient and dirt cheap. Even if Google were to make no acquisitions beyond their current business, they are still estimated to become the one of the largest advertising companies in the world; among those are the Yellow Pages. Who even seem to be taking a queue from Google and started YellowPages.com. All this is in light of consumers’ increase media-consumption in the form of the web browsing. With the creation of Youtube.com, people are spending more and more time online. This is especially significant because Google recently purchased Youtube.com for $1.65 billion dollars. (Not exactly chump change.)

Google purchased Youtube.com with the purpose of acquiring the largest video media source online. Its, now, closest competitor is Myspace.com; who controls nearly 20 percent of that