History of Google - Case Study Example

Running head: GOOGLE IT Google it: A Technical Entrepreneurship Case Study On the Search Engine Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin Table of Contents Introduction Men with a Vision Larry Page Sergey Brin The Merging of a Vision The Search Engine Influential Factors Family Education The Initial Investor Introduction With the advent of the computer technology and the arrival of the internet age, people are becoming more and more dependent on the internet for information. However, looking for a specific source -- the correct article, the appropriate text, or the right author can prove to be a difficult task. However, with the help of search engines, research is becoming easier and more reliable. There are a number of search engines on the internet nowadays that can aid anybody who has access to the internet to various type and levels of information. However, the most popular search engine all over the world is Google, which was founded developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 (Google, 2007a). Being the gateway to the web for more than hundreds of millions of people globally, Google can utilize using more than 100 languages (Vise, 2006). In fact, its brand has already been officially listed as a verb in the Webster's Dictionary (Vise, 2006). Indeed, Google is growing faster and bigger than its competitors. Given the success that this search engine has achieved, it is only proper to make an analysis on its success story. This case study will trace the history on how the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin created and developed their business, showing a detailed profile of each of them. Furthermore, this case study will present the history and background of the foundations as well as the technical developments of Google, and will analyse and evaluate its entrepreneurship strategies. In addition, this paper also aims to present and evaluate the different influential factors in the creation and development of the business, as well as the institutional suport from different sectors. Like people say: "let's just google it." Men with a Vision Larry Page Born in Lansing, Michigan on March 23, 1973, Lawrence Edward Page got his genius genes from his father who was a professor of computer science and artificial intelligence, and his mother who was a computer programming teacher (Wikipedia, 2007). His passion for computers began when he was six years old, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan where he graduated with honors (Google, 2007a). He later earned a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University, where he met Sergey Brin. Sergey Brin A native of Moscow, Russia, Sergey Mihailovich Brin was born on August 21, 1973 to Jewish parents. His father is a mathematician and economist, while his mother is a scientist for NASA. They moved to the United States in 1979 because of the increasing anti-semitism in Russia. He earned his degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of Maryland at College Park, while he earned his master's degree in computer science at Stanford University (Google, 2007a). The Merging of a Vision The name Google is derived from the word googol, which is a term in mathematics that represents the number one succeeded by 100 zeros. This represents the amount of information and pages that the search engine is capable of organising and indexing (Goodway, 2004). The creation of the Google innovation began in the spring of 1995, when the brash Sergey met the opinionated Larry at a student weekend in Stanford. There, they talked and argued for two days, engaging each other in intellectual combats. They found each other obnoxious and arrogant, yet they formed an instant bond, sharing an interest in retrieving relevant and specific information from huge data sets. (Masleed, 2007) In 1996, Larry came up with the idea that links between webpages can be used to rank their relative importance (Masleed, 2007). Thus, Larry and Sergey began working on their search engine called BackRub, with the unique capability of analysing the 'back links' that point to a given website (Google, 2007b). Because of low finances, they oftened the loading docks where they just borrow newly-arrived computers for their network, while building and developing a new kind of server environment (Google, 2007b). A year later, BackRub has slowly gained popularity within the campus. This is just the right encouragement that these two genuises needed to keep pursuing their vision of providing internet users with a search engine capable of producing more exact search results. The Search Engine To engineer a search engine is a strenuous feat. As Rappoport stated: "Search engines aren't just black boxes -- they are programs continually updated to improve indexing, search responsiveness and relevance ranking." (2002) Hence, to fully understand the innovation behind Google, Inc., it is important to look into the workings of the search engine that the company operates. Search engines that are heavily dependent on matching keywords tend to produce a broad spectrum of results that do not often hit the bull's eye. Thus, retrieving information from the web has proven to be difficult, and takes longer than it is ideally supposed to. In addition to this, there is a lot of advertising going on in the internet that interrupts the search for the proper information, and adds to the list of inaccurate and low quality search results. Thus, Larry Page and Sergey Brin dilligently engineered a search engine designed to index the world's massive amount on information available for users globally. Sergey Brin and Larry Page wrote a descriptive study entitled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine" to both explain and understand the way Google was engineered, and to be able to look into further developments as well (n.d.). In their study, they presented Google as a prototype of a large-scale hypertext web search engine, which was designed to better produce more satisfactory and more accurate search results by crawling and organising the web efficiently (Bring & Page, n.d.). In designing Google, Brin and Page had a couple of goals in mind. First, they wanted to provide an improved search quality for the users, by turning up the relevant and accurate information at the top of their search results, since they have found that people are only willing to look at the first few tens of results (Brin & Page, n.d.). The second goal that the founders pushed for was for and Academic Search Engine Research (Brin & Page, n.d.). Since the web was increasingly leaning towards advertising, academic and technical information were being pushed to the back of the search results, thus hindering the users from this educational data. In order to achieve these goals, Brin and Page used a PageRank calculation wherein the academic citation style of writing was applied, by counting the citations or backlinks to a given page, which then determines the importance or relevance of a page (Brin & Page, n.d.). A PageRank calculation measures the quality both the sites and its pages, and tries to show how often a truly random searcher, following links without any deliberation, would end up at a particular page (Rappoport, 2002). To put it simply, Page Rank assesses the probability that a random user would visit a webpage (Brin & Page, n.d.). Central to the process of the google search engine is the concept of "crawling." Crawling is the intricate and tedious process of trailing links to locate pages, and then reading those pages in order to make the information within them searchable. The google crawler is known as the GoogleBot and crawls all the webpages it knows, and reviews whether or not it is still available, as well as looking at its content. However, the GoogleBot avoids entering sties, which has been designed to prevent any indexing. This does this every few weeks. (Rappoport, 2002) Another important feature of Google is indexing, which makes it capable to sort the pages by word ID. This functions like the index at the back of a book, wherein a key or important word is listed with the pages wherein that word can be found. Through these design features, Google has been the most reliable search engine in the world, and has been they key to success of Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Influential factors Family Being born to parents who were from the computer science field, Brin and Sergey showed interest to computer science since they were little children. Larry page is known for building a printer made from Lego blocks, and Brin showed his interest at the tender age of six. Sergey Brin was born Jewish, while Larry Page also has Jewish roots. These two founders were brought up holding education and scholarship as very important factors in life (Malseed, 2007). They were raised by parents who believed that advanced degrees were almost mandatory, and who are very supportive in their endeavors. Thus, it would only be right to say that in the creation and development of their innovation, it is their family's influence and intellectual support that got them through. On the other hand, Sergey Brin's parents argued that the entrepreneurship skills of Sergey were not inherited from his parents, who are both very academic people (Masleed, 2007). However, in the same article, Sergey stated that he believes he got his rebellious and aggressive attitude from his Moscow roots, which, he further stressed, he believes has foolowed him to adulthood (Masleed, 2007). Hence, it may also be said that the Russian and Jewish roots of Sergey Brin is a contributor to his unwielding drive to succeed. Education In addition to family influences, a very strong impact that contributed to the success of Brin and Page is education. It is, in fact, in Stanford University where these two geniuses met. They have both taken leaves of absence from their Ph.D. courses to pursue this innovation, and it is from Stanford where they both got their master's degrees. Stanford University is well-known for its reputation in supporting high-tech entrepreneurs. In fact, Brin and Page began this innovation as a project for their Ph.D., in writing their study about the anatomy of a search engine. It was indeed, in Stanford University where their interest for the search engine technology was fostered. The Initial Investor Further stressing how Stanford aided in the success of Google, Brin and Page approached a friend of one of the faculty members and presented a demonstration. Andy Bechtolsheim is one of the founders of Sun Microsystems and was impressed with the potential of their search engine. He then granted them a check for $100,000, written out to Google, Inc. However, the Company Google, Inc was not yet established at the time. Thus, they had problems cashing the check. To resolve this, Brin and Page gathered funds from family, friends, and acquaintances, and they were able to collect a total initial investment of $1 million. They then formed Google, Inc. (Google, 2007b) The investment of Andy Bechtolsheim was vital to the success of the company. It was his initial investment that prompted the founders to actually establish the company. Conclusion Larry Page and Sergey Brin were indeed born with the natural intellect and talent for computer science. They were raised by parents who believed in the utter importance of education, and were indeed educated by good schools. A very supportive environment contributed to the success of Google, Inc. However, these external contributions to the company's success are only in addition to the utter innovative product that is Google. Timing was also a key factor in their success. Their search engine came out above the pioneer search engines. They have designed their search engine to become superior to these competitors, and have critically analysed the strengths and weaknesses of each search engine. Thus, they were able to engineer their search engine to display the strengths of other search engines, and to offer what the other search engines do not. Clearly, Google is known for its speed, accuracy, and precision. The cheerful environment of the Google organisation is also an important aspect of their continuing success. The cozy and lavish atmosphere of the Googleplex is very important, as Google executives explained (Fallows, 2001). Being the young entrepreneurs that these founders are, it is no wonder that the theme of their environment is very cheerful and young. On the other hand, despite having lavish interiors in their building, Google has been frugal with their advertisments. Instead of purchasing expensive television or print ads, Google makes ex-deals instead (Fallows, 2001). This type of frugality may also be due to the fact that one of the founders himself is frugal. Sergey Brin was raised to be frugal, and being happy without very many things (Malseed, 2007). It only follows that they would perceive it needless to apy for advertising when they have grown from word of mouth, and that they can get advertising in exchange for their services. For the past nine years, Google has been thriving. Indeed, this young company's story can make jaws drop, not only earning billions of dollars, but in effect, creating a new verb (Cukier, 2005). At the moment, google seems like it is strong and stable, with its many new products out in the market and their radical work environment filled with geniuses. Yes, Google is an innovative creation, and has proven useful to millions of users worldwide. So, let's just google it. References Cukier, K. (2005). Net Growth. New Statesman, 134(1763), p. 154. Davies, D. (2005). Anatomy of a search engine. SEO Today. Retrieved May 10, 2007, from http://www.seotoday.com/browse.php/category/articles/id/507/index.php Fallows, J. (2001). Forget the Yellowfin - How Much Does a Company's Culture Really Contribute to Its Success The Atlantic Monthly, 287 (3). Goodway, V. (2004, April 29). All the Answers on Google. The Evening Standard, p. 40. Google Inc. (2007a). Corporate information: Google management. Retrieved May 8, 2007, from http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html Google, Inc. (2007b). Corporate information: Google milestones. Retrived May 8, 2007, from http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html Malseed, M. (2007 February). The story of Sergey Brin. Moment Magazine. Retrieved May 9, 2007, from http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2007/2007-02/200702-BrinFeature.html "Men of the week: Sergey Brin & Larry Page." (2005). Retrieved May 10, 2007, from AskMen.com: http://www.askmen.com/men/business_politics_60/78_sergey_brin_larry_page.html Rappoport, A. (2002, October 30). Anatomy of a search engine: Inside google. Retrieved May 10, 2007, from http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.htmlpage=2161091 Vise, D.A. (2006, May-June). Google. Foreign Policy, 154, 20. Read More