THE GOOGLE STORY
by David A. Vise

To Lori - My search was over the day I met you
To my parents, Roger and Zoriana
THE GOOGLE STORY
Introduction
Not since Gutenberg invented the modern printing press more than 500 years ago, making books and
scientific tomes affordable and widely available to the masses, has any new invention empowered
individuals, and transformed access to information, as profoundly as Google. With its colorful, childlike
logo set against a background of pure white, Google's magical ability to produce speedy, relevant
responses to queries hundreds of millions of times daily has changed the way people find information and
stay abreast of the news. Woven into the fabric of daily life, Google has seemingly overnight become
indispensable. Millions of people use it daily in more than 100 languages and have come to regard
Google and the Internet as one. The quest for immediate information on anything and everything is
satisfied by "googling" it on a computer or cell phone. Men, women, and children have come to rely so
heavily on Google that they cannot imagine how they ever lived without it.
Google's transcendent and seemingly human qualities give it special appeal to an amazingly wide range
of computer users, from experts to novices, who trust the brand that has become an extension of their
brains. That appeal is universal, enabling it to overcome differences in culture, language, and geography
en route to becoming a global favorite. For a young firm that has not spent money to advertise or promote
its brand name, these are unparalleled achievements. Google's growth has occurred entirely by word of
mouth, as satisfied users recommend it to their friends, and others learn about it through the media and
online. No Madison Avenue marketers have pushed it. Instead, people have come to feel emotionally
attached to the search engine, calling on it whenever they wish to satisfy their interest or curiosity. In an
uncertain world, Google reliably provides free information for everyone who seeks it. It is a seductive
form of instant gratification for their minds.
Most Google users have no idea how the search engine was created, what makes it so profitable and
valuable, why it has triumphed over deeperpocketed
competitors, and where it is heading in the future. In
the pages of this book, we will answer all these questions for the first time. Until now, most of the
answers have remained secret, hidden deep inside the Googleplex, the company's spaceage
Silicon
Valley campus.
John Hennessy, a top computer scientist who is president of Stanford University and a Google board
member, says the firm is unique in today's bifurcated world of sophisticated software and hardware
companies because it is a leader in both areas. To power its search and searchrelated
services, Google
runs patented, customdesigned
programs on hundreds of thousands of machines that it also custom
builds. The optimal blending of technologies by the world's most innovative company produces superior
search results instantaneously. No word in the English language exists to describe this seamless melding
of hardware and software at such a massive scale, so we have named it Googleware.
Hennessy says that the most important technological advantage distinguishing Google from wouldbe
competitors is that its employees assemble and customize all of the personal computers the company uses
to carry out searches. This is perhaps Google's bestkept
secret. Experts generally regard personal
computers as commodity products, akin to toasters, but Google assembles, deploys, and is constantly
improving the performance capabilities of more than 200,000 inexpensive PCs. It builds and stacks them
atop one another in refrigeratorsize
racks, stringing them together with patented software and wiring. No
enterprise has more computing power than Google with its network of gardenvariety
PCs on steroids.
"They run the largest computer system in the world," Hennessy said. "I don't think there is even
anything close."
In an age of specialization of labor, Google secretly assembles each and every PC in its massive
network inside secure facilities that are strictly offlimits
to outsiders, including visitors to the Googleplex
who think they have seen it all. Google is able to do this affordably because the massive scale of its
operation makes it costeffective
and of higher quality than buying custom PCs from someone else.