About Google

Google has been gaining in popularity since its inception in the late '90's.

Starting as a university experiment called "Backrub" in which websites were ranked according to their link popularity (the number of links pointing to them) Google has continued to innovate the search engine landscape.

Google continued to refine it's abilities and the term "PageRank" was created to encompass all that backrub was. The PageRank algorithm soon became a webmasters best friend or worst enemy depending on their ability to influence it.

In 2000, Google introduced AdWords - an advertising platform where site owners could pay for performance. While Google was not the first engine to offer Pay for Placement advertising it tackled it like it does everyting else - with innovation.

Adwords isn't merely about money. While most of the top listings do pay the most, Google also ads an element of quality which means that sometimes lower paying ads can actually be placed higher than more expensive ones.

Since the inception of AdWords Google has continued to innovate and evolve itself. Google now offers a wide range of both web based and desktop applications. Some of the more popular are:

• Gmail - a web based email program
• Google Spreadsheets - a web based spreadsheet program allowing for storage and collaboration
• Picasa - Google's desktop based image storage and retrival program.
• Google Earth - As the name implies - a virtual globe running on your desktop.
• Google Maps - A web based cousin of Google Earth
• Google Local - Allows searchers to find local results on the web.
• And more...

As you can see, in a mere 10 years or so Google has evolved from an idea to a multi billion dollar per year empire and it continues to grow!