Googlites everywhere benefit from the Mountain View-based company’s ongoing search engine development. This is a quick review of Google and some products it has brought to the masses.
First, there was the search form, a clean page of modest elegance. A logo, an input box, a submit query button, and an extra button to whisk you to the first result returned by Google’s search, assuming you were feeling lucky and that first result would be relevant to your search.
And most often, it would be. But seeing pages of results return, sorted by relevance, made Google the killer application for Internet users. More than web browsing, more than e-mail, and even more than instant messaging. The long-held theory that information is power seemed to be proven fact.
Google introduced AdWords, a self-service ad program; if you had a credit card, you could be an Internet advertiser. The Google Toolbar for web browsers followed.
Then Google acquired Deja.com, and its massive Usenet archive. The wild and wooly land of Internet news was tamed a bit, at least in user functionality. They also published the Google Zeitgeist, a snapshot of the collective searches performed by visitors.
A Niche For Searches
Specialized searches for images and through catalogs appeared on the Google homepage next. And later on, Google picked up Pyra Labs and its Blogger software; thousands of users with all sorts of interests post their thoughts on Blogger now.
Google News emerged from the labs, and it has become an almost essential destination for those who want to stay informed. A computer algorithm sifts through the published news of the day, and continually updates the News site with the most active topics (including ones from Murdok!)
Recently, the latest inventions emerged from the Google Labs, and some speculate the search engine company may be on the verge of becoming more like the many portal companies. Desktop Search for Enterprise debuted, well ahead of Microsoft’s schedule for introducing a beta version of a similar offering.
And then the Google Personalized Homepage, also known as Fusion, was dropped onto the Internet. It’s a modest bit of software personalization, just as the original home page was a modest bit of code fronting a growing Internet powerhouse.
Google’s Future?
Who can say, really? Besides Larry and Sergey, of course. Some believe the homepage customization is the first step Google takes toward becoming the next Yahoo or MSN. Others think it’s just a cool bit of work, a little something extra for the Googlites out there to try. We’ll wait and see.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
