Searching for Google

THIS WEEK’S WINNER

Manila, Philippines - Jowo Luriz Manalastas of Pampanga has just graduated from ACCESS Computer Colleges with a degree in Bachelor of Science, Major in Computer Science. He has multiple job offers from some of the country’s leading IT companies but first wants to join show business, specifically, Star Cinema. He has also been published in the Bagong Sibol segment of Pilipino Star Ngayon.

Everybody knows (and uses and loves) Google. “The amazing thing is that we’re part of people’s daily lives, just like brushing their teeth,” says co-founder Larry Page. And it’s true. Millions of folks around the world have been using Google regularly that the noun is now also a verb — to google is to search.

Remember the movie Twilight? We’re talking about the scene where Bella is confronting Edward after the skidding truck scene. She’s demanding why he seems to have super powers. Edwards says it was an “adrenaline rush.” This is so common, he tells her, that she “can google it.” (If you want to see it again, you can google it on YouTube.)

Google made history with the way it has empowered individuals and redefined the concept of accessing information. “Ultimately you want to have the entire world’s knowledge connected directly to your mind,” says the other co-founder Sergey Brin. The entire World Wide Web can be likened to a sprawling metropolis, and the way to find your destination is through a search engine, akin to getting a cab.

And since Google is the best, the fastest, the most famous, the most responsive, the most innovative search engine there is, it has become nearly synonymous with the Internet itself.

Perhaps because of its colorful happy logo or a number of other intangibles, Google achieved brand name recognition and a level of appeal that breaks boundaries. We may be born under different circumstances, speak in different languages and raised in different cultures, but we all use Google — its search engine, or GMail or Blogger or any of its groundbreaking apps. Google has the charisma that diplomats want to have, and the influence that politicians would hopefully never have.

What seems stunning is that Google has not spent a single cent on advertising or marketing. Its unparalleled global transcendence was achieved almost entirely through word-of-mouth.

What a wonderful story is The Google Story: Inside The Hottest Business, Media and Technology Success Of Our Time by David A. Vise with Mark Malseed, from Pan. This, my favorite book, is a richly detailed account of the one of the world’s most remarkable organizations, with its self-renewing caravan of cutting-edge technological breakthroughs and market value of over tens of billions of dollars.

When Larry met Sergey, they were graduate students at Princeton, in, like me, computer science, in 1995. Both grew up in academically oriented families and they both possess the supreme self-confidence to speak exactly what’s on their minds, and plunge into uncharted territories to make their mark and stake the first claim.

Larry and Sergey had cracked the code for developing a more comprehensive search engine for the Internet, greatly superior to AltaVista, the leading brand at the time. At first they went about selling the technology to Yahoo! or Microsoft, or even AltaVista, Excite and their competitors, but they were turned down by all of them. Which is a good thing, really, because it pushed our boys into developing their software BackRub — and renaming it Google.

The word Google, as you know, is the spelling variant of googol — a mathematical term which means the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. How did Google get so big so fast? Especially relevant, how does it earn money, or rather, what makes it a moneymaking extravaganza? Let Larry enlighten us: “Google gets paid for every search that happens, more or less, mostly through advertising.”

An equally thorny issue is pornographic content. With all the world’s information at your fingertips, would you be tempted to peek at sex videos or even hard-core smut? Sergey faces this tough question unflinchingly — and shares a profound insight we’d all do well to take to heart.

“I want to tell you about something else Larry and I share in common. Both of us at a very early age went to something called a Montessori school. The theory of Montessori is you let kids do a lot of what they want where they are six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. But after that, because of the hormones that boys have, you actually used to send them to do hard labor in their teens. Otherwise, their minds get distracted. In this case, there are many ways to apply yourselves. You don’t have to do hard labor on the farm — but it is important to maintain focus, even through these difficult years.”

What’s the future for Google? Apparently nothing less than all the information in the world — including customized genetic blueprints. Writes Vise: “Two of the most compelling areas that Google and its founders are quietly working on are the promising fields of molecular biology and genetics. Millions of genes in combination with massive amounts of biological and scientific data are an excellent match for the Google search engine, the tremendous database the company has in place, and its immense computing power.”

But ultimately, what drives a company is the people behind it. Beyond the fame and glamour, who is the real Sergey Brin and Larry Page? Vise points out that Stanford Prof. Dennis Allison has “immense respect” for Sergey and Larry because of their “Lively personalities, their intellectual horsepower, the unusual maturity they developed despite their youth, and an ambition that’s translated into a willingness to tackle subjects others had found too daunting.”

True grit — that’s the power of Google. “Google’s success depends on the continuing day-to-day involvement of co-founders Brin and Page,” continues Vise. “Googleware and the lucrative Google ad system are a reflection of their genius and foresight. Going forward, it is the founders’ focus, leadership and grand ambition that are the most important ingredients in Google’s long-term success.”