Everything you need to know about the Google Search Engine

Google — Search Engine

It's no secret that the name Google stands for both a popular search engine and a global developer company. The story of Google’s creation could well serve as a prime example of the American dream. A chance encounter and high ideals did the trick: graduate student Sergey Brin and undergraduate Larry Page became billionaires in an astonishingly short time.

What Google is has become clear to nearly everyone today. For some, it’s an example of a successful company with a typically American spirit. For others, it’s a favorite and time-tested search system.

American Butler will help you understand the functions of Google and explain how the idea of changing the world for the better turned into a revolution in virtual space and real life.

What is Google?

Sergey Brin, co-founder of the company and inventor of the system, once explained the phenomenon of his creation. From an interview for Search Engine Watch: "Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan." One could add a third group: those for whom Google and the Internet are synonymous, and the system itself has long gone beyond American life.

Even linguists, incorrigible retrogrades, have officially included the word "to google" in the Oxford English Dictionary. But at American Butler, we believe the history of Google’s emergence is more than just a set of progressive solutions.

Inventing the Future: The History of Google

The official chronicle of Google Inc. begins on September 2, 1998, the day the company was registered in California. But in reality, it was preceded by three years of intense work by its founders and idea authors, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They met in 1995 at Stanford University.

Brin, a descendant of Soviet Jewish immigrants, was already pursuing a Ph.D., while Michigan-born Page had just embarked on his student journey. They both understood the imperfections of the existing internet search engines and were obsessed with the idea, in Larry’s words, "to download the entire Internet onto their computer."

Initially, they organized a search program project called BackRub, on which they worked from 1996 for two years. All their developments were used for the creation of Google, which began functioning in 1998. Brin and Page immediately established themselves as brilliant managers, choosing a transparent method of goals and key results for corporate policy.

In 2015, Google Inc. underwent reorganization. The role of the parent company is now performed by the holding company Alphabet Inc. As of February 2016, it even surpassed Apple in market capitalization.

Google's Capabilities

The functions of a system initially aimed at information search have been refined and now act as a driver of progress. According to Wikipedia, 77% of Google’s users do not speak English.

The system is not deterred by this — it supports over 100 active languages, including some dead ones like Latin. It can easily communicate in the artificial language Esperanto and surprise "Star Trek" fans: the fictional language of the Klingons is also among Google's linguistic technologies.

Google Translate and the most informative search are not the only reasons for the system’s popularity. Users highly value the main capabilities of the following Google functions:

• Google Account: A profile that allows you to use any service within the program.
• Google Gmail: An email service considered the most secure in the Russian-speaking internet.
• Chrome: A highly convenient internet browser.
• Google Images: A search function for images, identifying pages where they have appeared.
• Google Suggest: When searching, users can enter part of a phrase or word and select the most accurate query formulation.
• Google Maps: The system's mapping service.
• Bookmarks: A function for saving links to necessary sites. Bookmarks are accessible from any computer later.
• Google Drive: Cloud storage.
• YouTube: The most popular video hosting service.

These Google functions are complemented by a vast number of additional options and hundreds of new applications. For example, American Butler, like millions of other companies worldwide, highly values the "Google My Business" service, which allows creating and maintaining a company page.

5 interesting facts about Google

1. 01.Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the mid-90s did not excel in HTML, so their main page turned out rather primitive. Today, it’s become Google’s signature feature.
2. 02.Early versions of the system processed 50 web pages per second, while the latest processes millions.
3. 03.While everyone else posts cat pictures, Google declares itself a “dog company.” This is stated in their Corporate Code of Conduct.
4. 04.The company has some quirky rituals. New hires wear funny four-colored propeller caps for their first week.
5. 05.Google actively supports wildlife conservation programs in Africa. Not just in words, but financially. One of their recent donations of 5 million USD went towards drones to track poachers.