The world moves at a fast, unabated pace. So much so that we see many things and take it for granted. Many people realise the significance of things they had long taken for granted, only when there is a major disruption in their day to day lives (like breakups, losing a job or loss of loved ones). For me, I just had a thought, one that may have occurred to you already, or not. Either way, it is mind boggling how something as simple as a research project to enable efficient search of web pages has turned out to be the powerful juggernaut that is Google.

Consider this: most people that I know of, use the Gmail inbox to check their emails, from significant ones to that of spam mails. Many use the Google Chrome, either through smartphones or personal computers to browse the Web and that is despite the great early mover advantage that Internet Explorer had with widespread Windows usage. Everyone now wants to watch their favorite visual content creators on YouTube (from the gaming of PewDiePie to awe-inspiring vlogs by Casey Neistat or even music by T-Series).

It is amazing to consider how much Google has taken over lives (at least mine anyway), when you consider that it just started off to solve the he problem of finding out which web pages link to a given page, based on the consideration that the number and nature of such backlinks was valuable information about that page. Using the concept that pages which get linked to and are linked by equally reputable websites make that web page more important, this set in motion the idea of search engines that delivered the most popular results for a given keyword first.

But that alone doesn’t explain the growth of Google into the massive behemoth that it is today. For that you need to enter the pysche of the two founders of Google: Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

“You can’t understand Google,” early Google employee Marissa Mayer has insisted, “unless you know that both Larry and Sergey were Montessori kids. It’s really ingrained in their personalities. To ask their own questions, do their own things. Do something because it makes sense, not because some authority figure told you. In a Montessori school, you go paint because you have something to express or you just want to do it that afternoon, not because the teacher said so. This is baked into how Larry and Sergey approach problems. They’re always asking, why should it be like that? It’s the way their brains were programmed early on.” [1]

This enabled them to rise out of the box that they could have set themselves in with the massive success of their web search product and expand themselves into areas, they themselves wouldn’t have foreseen themselves moving into. The best example would be creating a free cloud storage for people to use called Google Drive. I find myself using this all the time to store documents created using Google Docs (I have even stopped using Microsoft Office, due to the ability to share and edit documents in real time), or make quality forms to gauge people’s opinions quickly using Google Forms, store and analyze this data using Google Sheets, and present the results in presentations using Google Slides. Who would have foreseen Google challenging kings like MS Office to their game?

These days I don’t see the need for me to ask people or map out routes the day before I go to places I have never previously visited- simply because of the existence of Google Maps. There is no worry for me as it by itself is sufficiently updated with real time routes, traffic and maps out the fastest route for me! I often have had conference calls held using Google Hangouts and it proves to be convenient for many. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that many phones run on Android Operating Systems which give a great experience for those who uses phones that run on it, not to mention the plethora of apps available on the Play Store!

I could go on and on but I will try to just encompass the variety of uses that Google has brought to the market: I can talk to my Google Assistant and get queries or results, or talk to people in foreign languages using Google Translate. I can share my pictures and other memorable moments using Google Photos, take notes using Google Keep, get an amazing Google Pixel phone, or a virtual headset like Google Daydream. They even help out open source projects by having something like Google Summer of Code to help students create for the Open Source community, as well as various scholarships for those who deserve it!

For the sake of brevity, I am not going to make a list, although I am pretty sure I already missed out on many of the products they have under their Alphabet umbrella (of which Google essentially controls). My point is to admire their desire for innovation which has seen them takeover many startups in the last few years in fields as varied wearable tech, mobile operating systems, driverless cars, and renewable energy. Money is no longer Google’s primary concern as it has enough to make the capital investment needed to create a beta version seem small in comparison. The company culture is focused on innovating first, getting the real user data second and worrying about monetizing afterwards.[2]

Am I saying Google is perfect? Probably not. In fact many have criticised the opaqueness of their search algorithms which help them amass billions of dollars, collection of data from users which clearly benefit them at the expense of user privacy, and the perception that Google can actually influence thinking of global minds through which kind of content gets promoted by them. But ultimately, Google is the perfect example of how to think out of the box and keep expanding and competing in new markets, even without the need to do so. Winners keep winning, and people keep Googling!

Google wasn’t initially making a lot of money for having the best search page on the market. Three years into its existence, Google took the first step towards its position in search by introducing Google Adwords. With Google’s ability to generate revenue through Adwords, the monetizing of a product is fairly straightforward as long as enough people want to use it.This was the trigger to make Google what it is today. In fact, people don’t say ‘search for a Web Page’, they just say Google. And many by far use Google more than any of its alternatives, be it DuckDuckGo or Bing. Also yes, there may be a search engine that could be better than Google that could be made some day. But that won’t ensure the fall many expect it to be. Because Google has outgrown itself and become a major world player in it’s own right.