MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - September 21, 1999 - Google
Inc., one of the fastest growing search destinations on the World
Wide Web, today announced GoogleScoutTM, a revolutionary
new feature that expands a user's access to related information
beyond the results of a search query. The company today also
announced the launch of its new website at www.google.com.
With the launch of the new Google site and the introduction of
GoogleScout, Google completes a successful and widely publicized
beta test, which is based on more than three years of advanced
research at Stanford University's Computer Science Department.
Google is dedicated to providing the best search experience on the
World Wide Web by offering users a high-performance, scalable
technology that enables fast access to information on the
Internet.
Google's new GoogleScout feature is designed to make finding
information and navigating the web faster and easier.
GoogleScout links are provided with each returned website result.
Clicking on GoogleScout instantly provides users with an
additional list of URLs that contains related information.
Google's underlying technology integrates a clean, easy-to-use
interface with next-generation technology to deliver search and
related link search results based on importance and relevancy.
The new GoogleScout feature offers a continuous source of
relevant recommendations of where to go next on the web, and
takes users to similar sites without additional keyword searching.
As the growth of the Internet continues at an unprecedented
rate-Forrester Research estimates that 1.5 million pages are
added to the Internet each day-the average search returns an
overwhelming number of results for users to sort through. Google
helps consumers save time by delivering highly targeted results
that narrow the time spent searching the web.
"We recognized years ago that existing search engines would be
unable to keep pace with the massive growth of the Internet," said
Larry Page, co-founder and chief executive officer of Google.
"Google delivers highly targeted and relevant results, but beyond
that we offer GoogleScout, a revolutionary concept for locating
groups of information sources on the World Wide Web.
GoogleScout helps user surf the web smarter, faster, and easier."
Until now, word-of-mouth recommendations have been the
force in driving traffic to the Google search engine. Google
currently averages about 65 searches per second at peak times and
three and a half million searches per day.
"In its beta phase, Google has developed a loyal following with its
users because it's easy to use and delivers remarkably relevant
results," said Sergey Brin, co-founder and president of Google.
"We developed our approach to search technology to address the
very real challenge of finding information on the Internet.
Everything we do-from the development of our advanced
technology to the design of our user interface-is focused on
delivering the best search experience on the web. We're delighted
with the response we've received from Google users around the
world who have enthusiastically embraced our approach to
search."
Google Search Technology Features
Google's distinctive approach to search is based on a wide array of
features and technologies, including the following:
An Elegant, Easy-to-Use Interface: Google's clean,
uncluttered interface is designed to make it easy for users to
enter search queries and interpret results. Results are
presented with context sensitive summaries so users can
easily tell if the corresponding web pages will satisfy their
need. Users can also enter a query and click the "I'm Feeling
Lucky"TM button, which takes users directly to the website
of the first search result. For example, entering smithsonian
into the Google search field and clicking the "I'm Feeling
Lucky" button takes the user directly to www.si.edu, the
official homepage of the Smithsonian Institution.
Sophisticated Text-Matching: Unlike conventional
search engines, Google is hypertext-based. It analyzes all
the content on each web page and factors in fonts,
subdivisions, and the precise positions of all terms on the
page. Google also factors in the content of neighboring web
pages. All of this data enables Google to return results that
are more relevant to user queries.
Patent-Pending PageRank Technology: Google's
PageRankTM technology performs an objective
measurement of the importance of web pages that is
calculated by solving an equation of 500 million variables
and more than 2 billion terms. Google does not determine
results by counting links. Instead, Google's PageRank uses
the vast link structure of the web as an organizational tool.
In essence, Google interprets a link from Page A to Page B
as a vote by Page A for Page B. Google assesses a page's
importance by the votes it receives. It also analyzes the page
that cast the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves
"important" weigh more heavily and help to make other
pages "important." Important, high-quality pages receive a
higher PageRank and are ordered higher in the results.
Google is objective and fully automated and does not use
human editors to judge a web page's importance.
Results are Delivered in Order of Importance and
Relevance. Internet users get the results they're looking for
because Google delivers the most relevant and important
results first. Matched terms are highlighted in the context of
the description so users have more information about a page
before jumping to it.
Cached Links that Show Web Results Even if a Server is
Down. Google stores a cached copy of all the web pages it
crawls so users can access a web page even when a server is
down or the link is broken. A cached copy loads quickly
since it is saved by Google's high-powered computers.
Website Results that Feature a Related URL link.
Google's newest feature, GoogleScout, offers a list of sites
related to a search result. A GoogleScout link is created
from the collective wisdom of the web. It delivers suggested
websites that are based on an objective and fully automated
analysis of web pages and overall link patterns of the web.
Integrity in Search Results: Google is objective and
unbiased. Google is resistant to manipulation of returned
results and does not alter the rank of search results based on
payment.
Google Search Services
Google provides the same high-quality search capabilities to
portals and commercial websites with its Google SiteSearch and
Google WebSearch products.
Google SiteSearch is designed to search for information
contained within a specific website. Red Hat, Inc., a leading
developer and provider of open source Linux-based
operating system, uses Google's SiteSearch capability to
enable visitors to search for company-specific information
contained within the RedHat.com website.
Google WebSearch offers web-wide search capabilities to
commercial websites and portals. AOL's Netscape
Netcenter portal uses Google's WebSearch capability to
enable its visitors to search the entire web from the
Netcenter portal's Netscape Search.
About Google, Inc.
Google was founded in 1998 by Stanford University Ph.D.
candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin to create a new generation
of powerful, scalable search engine products to improve the user
experience of searching the web. Based on three years of
advanced research in computer science, Google is dedicated to
providing the best user search experience by delivering a
powerful, yet simple-to-use format for finding the most relevant
answers to search queries.
Google currently offers search solutions through its own
destination site at www.google.com. The company also offers
co-branded web search and site search solutions for information
content providers.
Google is privately held. The company's funding partners include
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. The
company announced in June that Michael Moritz, general partner
of Sequoia Capital, and John Doerr, general partner of Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, joined Google's Board of Directors.
Moritz is currently director of numerous companies, including
WebVan, Agile Software, eToys, Flextronics, NightFire, Saba
Software, PlanetRx, eGroups, Affinia and Yahoo!. Doerr was a
co-founder of @Home, and is a director of several high-growth
Internet companies, including Amazon.com, DrugStore.com,
Epicor, Google, HandSpring, Intuit, Lightspan Partnership,
MarthaStewart Living, OmniMedia and Sun Microsystems.
Other investors include Stanford University; Andy
Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and current vice
president at Cisco Systems; and Ram Shriram, former president
of Junglee and vice president of Business Development at
Amazon.com. Google is based in Mountain View, Calif. More
information about Google can be found on the company's website
at www.google.com.
Google's corporate customers include Netscape, a subsidiary of
AOL (NYSE: AOL), which incorporates Google's search
technology into its Netscape Search on the Netcenter portal.
Other customers include Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT), a
leading developer and provider of open source Linux-based
operating system; wunderground.com, a leading market innovator
for Web-based weather delivery; and Gobi, a leading technology
service provider.
Google's destination site was listed in PC Magazine's July 1999
Top 100 Web Sites and recently was cited as a staff favorite in
Newsweek magazine.
Google is a play on the word googol, which was coined by Milton
Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, to
represent the figure 1 followed by 100 zeroes. Google's use of the
term reflects the immense amount of information available on
the web.
More information about Google can be found on the company's
website at www.google.com.