An Internet search engine that actually finds what you are looking for on the first try -- impossible, you say? Think again. Try searching at www.google.com, and you may be pleasantly surprised.
In its short history, Google has been praised by media across the country, from Playboy to Newsweek, and garnered prestigious awards including seventh place on Time Magazine's "The Best Cybertech of 1999" and a spot on PC Magazine's "Top 100 Web Sites."
Sergey Brin, co-founder and president of Google, Inc. recently spoke with The Dartmouth about his Internet start-up endeavor and the emerging phenomenon that is Google.com.
Google originated in the mid-1990s, the brainchild of two Stanford University PhD. candidates, Russian-born Brin and friend Larry Page, working on a research project to develop a new method of searching for information on the World Wide Web.
"We were just doing research, and by the summer of 1998, we felt we had something truly marketable," Brin said.
This new searching technique hit the mainstream in 1998 as Google.com -- to little fanfare and even less advertising.
Getting started was "very easy at the time," Brin said, noting the high number of Internet start-ups that arise out of Stanford graduates and professors.
Despite the lack of original publicity, word-of-mouth praise propelled the deceivingly simple search engine to the top of the Internet market in fewer than two years.
The concept
Using patent-pending PageRank technology -- check out the website if you want to know how it works -- Google finds relevant search results by assessing each page's "importance." It's complicated, but it works.
But this complexity is masked by a strikingly simplistic design. The main page has no advertisements whatsoever, only a box for a user's search input and two search options: a regular search or an "I'm feeling lucky" search that brings you directly to the web page that Google deems most relevant to your search.
With a regular search, chances are you won't see any ads either.
"We're focused on very targeted ads," Brin said.
Only about 50 companies currently advertise on Google, so your chances of actually seeing an ad are pretty slim, Brin said. And even if you do see an ad, they are completely text-based so as not to slow transmission with graphics or sound.
Google's Public Relations manager David Krane told The Dartmouth, "You search for MP3s, you won't get an ad for cheap airline tickets."
Expanding and consolidating
Since its inception in 1998, Google has grown with leaps and bounds. Currently, about 100 people work for the company based in the heart of Silicon Valley, Mountain View, Calif.
And the "little" company among the giants -- Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics and AOL Netscape are just some of the other companies in Mountain View -- continues to grow. Brin said his work force will likely double to 200 employees by the end of this year.
Brin said he expects Google to be profitable within a few years. Currently a privately-owned company, Google may go public in the future though no immediate plans have been made.
Though expansion of the site would seem to be the likely route, Brin said he plans on Google.com being "even less of a site."
Google recently released prototypes of "browser button" search extensions that enable users to search directly from their Web browser programs without ever visiting a search engine's site. Google support for Palm Pilots is also on the horizon, Brin said.
Google also offers search capabilities to other websites, using Google's special search technology to perform searches of individual sites' Web pages.
What consumers should expect
Brin and Krane also informed The Dartmouth of a new program that the company is planning to release in just a few days. Google will offer its search technology to college websites through its University Program.
But unlike Google's normal site search capabilities which are available at a cost to a host website, the company will offer site searches to colleges for free.
In the upcoming days, Google will release a working sample of the program to a small number of schools, including Dartmouth, which will have the option of upgrading their ".edu" sites with Google search technology.
Brin said Google is offering the University Program "to give something back to the academic world that has given us so much in the way of personnel."
Also, Google will soon expand its search engine to encompass various foreign languages to allow users to search in only a specific language.
Krane said the first phase of this program will be implemented in just a few weeks with primarily Western European languages, with more languages to follow.
Personal penchants
When asked for a comment on Internet ethics, Brin was pensive. He told The Dartmouth, "There's a fair amount of really bizarre stuff out there that parents wouldn't want their children to see."
Still, he affirmed, "I'm certainly not a fan of censorship by any means."
On a different note, Brin, a 1993 graduate of the University of Maryland, extended some advice to college-age, prospective Internet entrepreneurs.
"I've seen in a lot of ... cases, people who've rushed into starting a business," he said. "You should think of exactly what you really enjoy and would work on for years and years."
Brin suggested doing "prototyping" and spending time considering one's interest in the product.
Brin said he plans on staying with Google for a long time. "This is a fun place to be, and I've worked hard to make it that way."
"At Google we really do work to improve the overall quality of the work environment," Brin said.
At the company's offices, though the employees may often work long hours, the atmosphere is light and casual, according to Krane, noting that Google has two professional masseuses and two gourmet chefs on staff.
All employees have access to the masseuses who have a quiet, secluded area for relaxation within Google's office building, and the chefs prepare healthy and tasty meals for both lunch and dinner, Krane said.
Many employees also participate in "extracurricular" activities together such as roller hockey, scavenger hunts and ski trips.
