What is Google And How Does It Work?

Article courtesy of Noodlehead Marketing.

Google Introduction

In its most simplistic definition, Google is a search engine.  It allows people to enter a word, phrase or question and returns web pages that are determined to most closely match the intent of the searcher.  With over a TRILLION web pages published on the World Wide Web, how on earth does Google keep track of them all?

Google breaks the task down into 3 steps:

1. Gathering URL’s (web page names),
2. Indexing those pages, and
3. Assigning a Page Rank.

The first step is completed by a web crawling robot called Googlebot.  Like a spider crawling its web, it goes out and finds web sites and returns the pages to Google’s servers.  Googlebot also collects all the links to and from the site and puts them in line to be visited soon.  By harvesting links from every page it encounters, Googlebot can quickly build a list to cover broad reaches of the web.  Due to the vastness of the web, Google continuously re-crawls popular, frequently changing web pages to keep their information current.

Once Googlebot returns the full text of the pages it finds, they are stored in Google’s index database.   A good way to visualize this is to think of the world’s largest filing cabinet.  Each drawer contains millions of web pages sorted alphabetically by search terms.  By sorting every page it finds, Google can return search results in a fraction of a second.

Finally, when a search is requested, Google runs its indexed pages through a formula called a Page Rank to determine which pages are most relevant.  This formula is a highly guarded secret and has over 100 variables.  Through testing, we do know that popularity of the page, position and size of the search terms, and proximity of the search terms to each other are considered.

Great, now why is this important?

Google alone receives over 145 million searches per month. Add in Yahoo and Bing and the number more than doubles. Many years ago in Atlanta, the “free directory of phone numbers and businesses” dropped on my doorstep contained two 8½ x 11 volumes, each 3 inches thick.  It was by default the source everyone used to let their fingers do the walking.  This year, the same “free directory of phone numbers and businesses” for Atlanta was 6 x 9 and less then 1 inch thick.  A survey by Vistaprint gives some insight into why.  66% of respondents indicated “no interest” when asked about Yellow Pages.  In addition, the under 35 demographic has expressed resentment at the incredible waste of resources to produce, distribute and dispose of the directories.  In an informal survey of the under 35’s in our social network, every single one indicated that the directories delivered to their door go straight to the recycling bin.

How do we adapt to the shift in consumer behavior?

How can we be found where potential customers are looking for us?

Out with paper and in with Google.