Google began as a research project conducted in January 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Page and Brin were PhD students at Stanford University who were looking to shift the mindset of a traditional search engine. At the time, search engines ordered results for a search based on the number of times the search term appeared on the page; Page and Brin wanted to do things differently. They developed a system called PageRank which returned search results based on the relevance of pages with the search term. It determined relevance based on the number of links to the page and the relevance of pages linking back. In other words, if a certain page was linked to frequently, and the pages that linked to it were themselves important, it would appear at the top of search results.

The search engine’s first name was BackRub because of the backlinks used by the system when determining website relevance; the name Google evolved a little later as a misspelling of the number googol—the number one followed by one hundred zeroes. Page and Brin wanted to create the impression that their site provided a large amount of information, and the reference to googol did exactly that.

The website name for Google was initially registered under Stanford University as google.stanford.edu or z.stanford.edu; Google’s domain name was eventually registered in September 1997. The company aspect integrated with the website aspect in September 1998 and was initially based out of a friend’s garage. The company was initially funded with one hundred thousand dollars in August 1998 from the co-founder of Microsystems, and major investors pitched in twenty-five million dollars in June 1999. Google’s initial public offering – a time when shares, or pieces of the overall company, are sold to investors—took place in 2004, further expanding the scope of the company from a single search engine to a more global enterprise.

Over the years, Google has continued to grow. By 2009, people were conducting over a billion searches per day. The company has expanded from a search engine to a series of applications and products such as Gmail (e-mail), Chrome (web browser), Drive (a file-sharing and storage system), and many others. Its most profitable component is its advertising service known as Adwords for those who place ads using Google, and AdSense for the websites and search pages the ads appear on. As of October 2016, seventy offices in over forty countries keep the search engine and associated Google products running smoothly.

How was the search engine developed by Brin and Page different from previous search engines?
1. It ranked results based on the number of times search terms appeared
2. It ranked results based on how popular the search terms were
3. It ranked results based on the number of links on a certain page
4. It ranked results based on the the relevance of the page with the search terms
Which of the following would rank highest in Google search results if someone types in “Best Pizza in Chicago?”
1. A page that sells pizza in Chicago
2. A page with the phrase “Best Pizza in Chicago” several times
3. A page that is linked to by popular Chicago food websites
4. A page that advertises its pizza on the radio
What is ironic about how Google got its name?
1. The creators of Google wanted to create an impression that Google contained a lot of information
2. A googol is the number one with 100 zeroes after it
3. It evolved from the misspelling of the term “googol.”
4. It was named by PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Which paragraph explains the transition of Google from a search engine to a corporation?
1. First
2. Second
3. Third
4. Fourth
Which of the following statistics within the passage is outdated?
1. The statistic that tells the amount of Google’s initial funding
2. The statistic that tells the number of searches people conduct per day
3. The statistic that tells the amount of money major investors pitched in to help Google grow
4. The statistic that tells the number of zeroes in Googol
What question is NOT answered?
1. What are some other products made by Google?
2. How many people created Google?
3. Who was the co-founder of Microsystems?
4. Why was 2004 an important year for Google?
What is IMPLIED in the final paragraph?
1. Google is an international corporation
2. Google AdWords and AdSense are basically the same product
3. Chrome, Drive, and Gmail are also Google products
4. Since October 2016, there are very few new products from Google