What Makes Google So Successful

As you can tell from the title of this section, Google, like Frisbee and Kleenex, has become a household name. Web surfers everywhere use the word ‘‘Google’’ to describe the act of searching for something, many times not even realizing (or caring) that there is a powerful company that shares the same name. That works both ways, too; businesses both large and small hope they will be ‘‘Googled’’ by those same consumers, who will go on to find out more about what they have to offer and eventually make a purchase.

The place to start with Google is to determine how it can help your site become more visible on the Web. And the way to understand that is to understand how the Google search works. Here’s an overview to give you the gist of it.

1. Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, came up with formulas for indexing the contents of Web pages, storing them in a huge database, and retrieving pages based on keyword searches.
2. Google uses automated programs to scour the contents of Web pages on a regular basis (just how frequently is one of those trade secrets I already mentioned). The programs record the contents of many pages and the URLs and store them in a database.
3. You, the end user, type a word or phrase like ‘‘Irish dancing’’ into Google’s search box and click the search button. When you do this, a program is activated on Google’s servers. The program searches the pages that have already been stored in the database. That’s right: when you click the search button on Google’s home page or in the Google Toolbar, you are searching Google’s database of Web pages, not the ‘‘live’’ Web itself.
4. Google compiles a set of search results ranked in the order of highest relevance to your search. It’s Google’s system of page ranking—of determining which items are on the top on the first page of the results—that’s as notable as anything in this system.

As an end user, you already know how the search system works: it helps you find Web pages that contain information you’re looking for. But ‘‘Going Google’’ means you want to make use of the system from the standpoint of someone who wants to do better business. You can take advantage of the system of keyword searches and page rankings to achieve the business objectives outlined in the sections that follow.