Lecture Notes: The Rise of Google and Modern Search Engines

Context and Background

• By 1998, there were 2.4 million websites.
• Early search engines were inefficient at finding relevant information.
• A new method of searching the internet was needed to handle the vast amount of data.

Key Figures: Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Larry Page

• Born in Michigan, parents were academics.
• Interested in both arts and technology.
• Attended University of Michigan, developed interest in human-computer interaction.
• Studied efficiency of interfaces and was rejected by MIT, attended Stanford.

Sergey Brin

• Born in Moscow, emigrated to the US in 1979 due to discrimination.
• Family settled in Maryland, father a math professor.
• Attended University of Maryland, also chose Stanford after being rejected by MIT.

Meeting and Partnership

• Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford in 1995.
• Quickly bonded over shared interests and became a team.
• Studied in the William Gates Computer Science Building at Stanford.

Development of Google

Initial Ideas

• Page considered a dissertation on self-driving cars but chose to work on ranking web pages.
• Inspired by academic practices of citation and footnotes.
• Developed a way to rank web pages by incoming links and their importance.

Creation of PageRank

• Used web crawlers to index the internet.
• Called the project "Backrub" due to its analysis of backlinks.
• Realized they could create a search engine by ranking pages based on link importance.

Establishing Google

• Originally named "PageRank" but renamed Google (a misspelling of "googol").
• Improved search results by considering synonyms and context.
• Attracted attention from venture capitalists, securing initial funding from Andy Bechtolsheim.

Google's Innovation

• Unlike other search engines, Google ranked pages by importance, not just keyword matching.
• Used an iterative process to refine search results and improve user experience.

Conclusion

• Google epitomized a hybrid of human intelligence and machine processing.
• It represented a peak in human-computer symbiosis, building on the vision of earlier pioneers.
• Emerged as a leader in connecting the world through search technology.

These notes summarize the lecture on the rise of Google and the evolution of modern search engines, highlighting the key figures, developments, and innovations that have shaped Google's success and impact on the internet.