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Internet Basics



HOW GOOGLE WORKS

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By: Jonathan Strickland & John Donovan

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THE GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE

"" The Google search engine remains the cornerstone of just about everything the
company does. Carsten Koall/Getty Images

As large as Google has grown, as many changes as it has seen, its primary
purpose is still clear: To help users find what they want on the internet. And
that's where Google's search engine shines.

Pandu Nayak has been with the company for more than 14 years and is now the vice
president for search.

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"One kind of primary thing that has not changed, in those 14 years, which I
value tremendously, is this idea that we built search for users, we built search
because people come to Google for things that matter in their lives," Nayak
says. "[It] is our deep, deep responsibility to give them great results, great
answers great experiences, and help them go about their lives more effectively.

"This focus, which really goes back to the mission statement ... is still one
that drives us through all of these changes."

Google's search engine is a powerful tool, but the internet is a big place. It's
sometimes hard to find what you're looking for. Nayak and many others throughout
the company work with the idea that getting you what you're after — figuring out
what you want — is their responsibility, no matter what you type into the search
bar. They study language and intent, incorporate machine learning and artificial
intelligence and note every search that is undertaken, all in an effort to make
it easier on the user.

It started years ago, and continues today, as the Google search engine has
learned the difference between, say, Penélope Cruz and the Chevy Cruze, as it's
figured out that in some cases, people use the word "change" and "convert" for
the same action.

Nayak has gone through the implementation of spell correction, and the synonym
finder, and universal search, which gives users not only web pages that they may
be looking for, but photos, videos and more.

When he joined the company, he (like many others) thought Google worked
astoundingly well. But as expectations for the search engine — and the company —
have grown, expectations have changed. Or converted.

"Nobody, absolutely nobody comes and tells me that, 'Oh, you know the other day,
I did a search and, you know, it worked really well,'" Nayak says with a laugh.
"No one says that.

"Our endeavor is that you don't need any special expertise in searching. We want
to be able to find ways to understand what it is you're looking for ..."

All that said, Google can help narrow down what you're looking for with
specialized searches. You can browse through different categories that pertain
to your keywords, including:

 * Images
 * Maps
 * News articles or video footage
 * Products or services you can purchase online
 * Content in books
 * Videos
 * Scholarly papers

For example, if you search for the term "Planet Earth" in the news category, the
results will include only news articles that contain those keywords. The results
will look very different from Google's normal SERP.

Like all search engines, Google uses a special algorithm to determine its search
results. While Google shares some facts about its algorithm, the specifics are a
company secret. This helps Google remain competitive with other search engines
and reduces the chance of someone finding out how to abuse the system.

Google uses automated programs called spiders or crawlers, just like most search
engines, to help generate its search results. Google has a large index of
keywords that help determine search results. What sets Google apart is how it
ranks its results, which determines the order Google displays results on its
search engine results pages. Google uses a trademarked algorithm called
PageRank, which assigns each Web page a relevancy score.

A Web page's PageRank depends on a few factors:

 * The frequency and location of keywords within the Web page: If the keyword
   appears only once within the body of a page, it will receive a low score for
   that keyword.
 * How long the Web page has existed: People create new Web pages every day, and
   not all of them stick around for long. Google places more value on pages with
   an established history.
 * The number of other Web pages that link to the page in question: Google looks
   at how many Web pages link to a particular site to determine its relevance.

Out of these three factors, the third is the most important. Because Google
looks at links to a Web page as a vote, it's not easy to cheat the system. The
best way to make sure your Web page is high on Google's search results is to
provide great content so that other sites will link to your page. The more links
your page gets, the higher its PageRank score will be. If you attract the
attention of sites with a high PageRank score, your score will grow faster.


Does Whatever a Spider Can

A search engine spider does the search engine's grunt work: It scans Web pages
and creates indexes of keywords. Once a spider has visited, scanned, categorized
and indexed a page, it follows links from that page to other sites. The spider
will continue to crawl from one site to the next, which means the search
engine's index becomes more comprehensive and robust.

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Jonathan Strickland & John Donovan "How Google Works" 30 May 2019.
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