Google On

2006-07-21 Posted at 11:45:18 PM

The word “google” has taken on new meaning over the past few years.

I remember years agowhen we talked about being “google-eyed”; meaning that there was something very special that surprised us and our eyes became round as saucers -- Googly eyes are large, bulging or rolling eyes. The windows at Eatons and Sears at Christmas were enough to make many young children “googly-eyed” with wonder at the delights that were available.

I thought that perhaps this was the thinking behind the successful search engine named “Google” as we are “all eyes” searching for our particular item, however when I “googled” the information, this is what I found.  “Google is a play on the word googol, which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, Mathematics and the Imagination by Kasner and James Newman. It refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google's use of the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web.”

There have been a number of search engines over the years – Yahoo, Alta Vista, Excite, Ask Jeeves, DogPile, Metacrawler, Lycos, Webcrawler (which I used to use), MSN, etc., but none have quite captured the attention of surfers like Google.  It is easy to say, easy to visualize and you get good results.  I use it all the time to find what I am looking for.  Google is really five different search sites in one. The vast majority of people use the Google Web search engine, which is the one that presents itself first when you go to www.google.com. But if you click on the tabs at the top of the screen, you can reach the other Googles

I decided to look up Google to get some more information.  Are you aware of ALL the things that Google has done over the past almost 10 years of their existence??  I was astounded when I went to read the corporate information.  It is well worth the time to read through it, just to see what is possible when you FOCUS on your dream.  Google was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and you can find the very interesting  corporate story here .

However, they were not content with just creating a search engine.  First Google introduced AdWords, which led to AdSense’ then Google introduced the Google Toolbar and the Deskbar.  Their next step included the launch of their Google Catalog Search first launched during the summer with 250 million images.  Online shopping took a leap forward with the beta launch of this Google Catalog Search, which made it possible for Google users to search and browse more than 1,100 mail order catalogs that previously had been available only in print.  But they didn’t stop there either.  Most recently they introduced a new web-based mail service called Gmail and a digital satellite imaging service. 

For 2006, they came up with a few more new items:

“And the year arrived with a bang: a brand new Google Video store – now featuring many titles from numerous content partners, and the ability to view or download them using a new Google Video Player. What's more, filmmakers can set the price and level of copy protection for their productions, giving fans far more variety than was previously available. While at the massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas , we also unleashed a Google Pack – a free collection of safe and useful software for improving the web experience. And a first for Google: Larry Page delivered a keynote speech at CES, which has become a huge event for reporters, industry folks and consumers alike.”

What’s next for Google??  What can they do to top what they’ve done so far, these amazing young men??  They offer this invitation to all of us, “Take a peek at some of the ideas our engineers are currently kicking around by visiting them at play in Google Labs. Have fun, but be sure to wear your safety goggles.”

Fran Watson

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