Google — Crawling the Global Web

It seems that the most successful IT businesses in the United States get set up in a garage or a college dorm room. Google — just like Microsoft and Dell — falls into that category. Founded in 1998, it is the world's most popular search engine — and it might go public soon. Our Globalist Factsheet examines all things Google.

Where does the name “Google” actually come from?

The U.S.-based search engine Google is named after a word play on “googol” — the mathematical term for one followed by 100 zeros.
(The Economist)

How large is Google’s catalogue?

In 2004, Google expanded its Web index to include more than six billion items.
(BBC)

What is the technology behind Google’s search engines?

As of 2002, the mathematical formula Google uses to rank each Web page relies heavily on how many other Web pages link to it, but that’s only one of more than 100 variables it considers in determining relevance. Google has 50 PhDs on staff who tinker with the formula almost daily.
(Washington Post)

How popular is Google?

As of 2004, Google has more than 70% of the global search engine market, meaning that seven out of 10 people will click onto Google’s Web page when they are looking for information on the Internet.
(BBC)

How big are the numbers behind this popularity?

As of 2004, Google executes more than 200 million searches daily, with Google computers constantly crawling the Web and updating information from 3.3 billion pages.
(Washington Post)

Where are Google’s users located?

Of the 200 million searches processed by Google each day, only one-third are from inside the United States. The rest are in 88 other languages.
(New York Times)

How extensive is Google’s reach in our lives?

Goggle’s name has generated the verb “to google.”
(BBC)

Have Google’s founders done well?

In 2003, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are worth $1 billion each.
(Forbes)

What about Google’s corporate ethics?

As of 2004, Google lists under “10 things google has found to be true” that “you can make money without doing evil.”
(Washington Post)

Does Google put its money where its mouth is?

In order to accommodate an ever-increasing number of Internet search requests, Google distributed more than 50,000 computers to over a dozen computer centers around the world in the spring of 2003. The number exceeded 100,000 by late November of that year.
(New York Times)

What is Google worth?

As of 2004, Google is valued at $15 billion to $20 billion — and an IPO could generate up to $4 billion.
(Washington Post)

Do people expect Google to go public?

As of 2004, typing “Google IPO” into the Google search engine yields 14,000 Web sites in 0.07 seconds.
(Washington Post)