Google: The Company and Its Founders - Sharyland ISD

GOOGLEUNLIKE OTHER SEARCHENGINES“It kind of seems surprisingin retrospect, but at the timeit was a bunch of little stepsand they all made a lot ofsense. That algorithm turnedinto a really successful searchengine at Stanford. A bunchof Stanford people used it. Isaw it at that point and wasreally enamored of it. . . . Iwas really impressed to seesomething that was so muchbetter than the state of theart. So it became a company, itstarted growing users by wordof mouth, and now we’re likethis.” 6—Craig Silverstein, Google’sfirst employeePerhaps one of the most importantkeys to the success of Googlewas that other commercial searchengines were not interested increating a better search tool. Highprofilesearch engines such asAltaVista, Excite, and Lycos wereowned by companies that mademoney through other avenues, suchas advertising. As search qualitydeteriorated on these sites, userslooked for alternatives. They foundGoogle.Other search enginecompanies were convinced a savvysearch engine was not important,but Brin and Page held fast to theirfirm belief that a fast, reliable, andaccurate search engine would proveits worth in the long run. The menput their money into additionalservers and allowed word of mouthand favorable media coverage to48