Google Search Overview
– Google Search is a web search engine.
– It is available in 149 languages.
– Google Search is owned by Google.
– It generates revenue through Google Ads.
– It has a 92% share of the global search engine market.
Search Indexing
– Google indexes hundreds of terabytes of information from web pages.
– It provides links to cached versions of websites that are currently down or unavailable.
– Google indexes various file types, including PDFs, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets.
– Users can activate SafeSearch to filter explicit and pornographic content.
– Google’s search index covers less than 5% of the total Internet, with the rest belonging to the deep web.
Search Algorithm Upgrades
– Caffeine was a search architecture upgrade introduced by Google.
– It improved search speed and indexing infrastructure.
– Caffeine did not bring visual changes to the user interface.
– Google completed the Caffeine upgrade in June 2010.
– The new architecture provided 50% fresher search results.
– The Medic update was a broad core algorithm update by Google.
– It aimed to prioritize user-friendly and high-quality medical and health-related websites.
– Google has high standards for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) pages.
– The update targeted low-quality content and misinformation on YMYL pages.
– Websites from various industries were affected by the Medic update.
Search Results and Ranking
– In 2013, the European Commission found that Google Search favored its own products.
– Google introduced a mobile search algorithm update in 2015.
– The update prioritized mobile-friendly websites.
– Nearly 60% of Google searches come from mobile phones.
– Websites without a mobile-friendly interface may see a decrease in traffic.
– PageRank is a patented algorithm used by Google to rank web pages.
– It analyzes human-generated links to determine a page’s importance.
– PageRank is based on the weighted sum of other important pages linking to a page.
– Google has over 250 secret criteria for ranking pages, in addition to PageRank.
– The specifics of these criteria are kept secret to prevent manipulation and maintain competitiveness.
Google Optimization and User Experience
– Google optimization refers to improving a website’s visibility on Google Search.
– It involves various strategies and techniques to increase organic search traffic.
– Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in Google optimization.
– Google regularly updates its search algorithm, impacting website rankings.
– Optimizing websites for mobile devices is important due to the growth in mobile usage.
– Google unveiled Search Generative Experience (SGE) at the 2023 Google I/O event.
– SGE is an experimental feature in Google Search available through Google Labs.
– SGE produces AI-generated summaries in response to search prompts.
– OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT posed a potential threat to Google Search.
– Google added the ability to generate images in October.
– Google introduced a new look to the Google home page in late June 2011.
– The classic navigation bar was replaced with a black one.
– The new navigation bar received negative feedback from a vocal minority.
– Yellow labels for advertisements in search results were tested in November 2013.
– In December 2016, Google rolled out a new desktop search interface that mimics their mobile UI.
– Google offers a Google Search mobile app for Android and iOS devices.
– The mobile apps feature Google Discover and a Collections feature.
– Android devices received a preview of the feed in December 2016.
– The feed was made official on both Android and iOS in July 2017.
– In April 2016, Google updated its Search app on Android to feature Trends.
– Google Search consists of a series of localized websites.
– The google.com site is the most-visited website in the world.
– Features include a definition link for most searches and the ability to filter results by date.
– Google Search provides a number of other features like links to related searches.
– A wide variety of operators can be used for more customized results.
– Google search accepts queries as normal text or individual keywords.
– It automatically corrects misspellings and provides the same results regardless of capitalization.
– Operators like OR, minus sign, and placeholder symbol can be used for customized searches.
– Search within a specific website using ‘site:’ or find definitions using ‘define:’.
– Google Advanced Search page provides a web interface for accessing advanced features.
Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine owned and operated by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is the most-visited website in the world. Approximately 26.75% of Google's monthly global traffic comes from the United States, 4.44% from India, 4.4% from Brazil, 3.92% from the United Kingdom and 3.84% from Japan according to data provided by Similarweb.
 | |
 Homepage as of August 2023 | |
Type of site | Web search engine |
|---|---|
| Available in | 149 languages |
| Owner | |
| Revenue | Google Ads |
| URL | google |
| IPv6 support | Yes |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched |
|
| Current status | Online |
| Written in | |
The order of search results returned by Google is based, in part, on a priority rank system called "PageRank". Google Search also provides many different options for customized searches, using symbols to include, exclude, specify or require certain search behavior, and offers specialized interactive experiences, such as flight status and package tracking, weather forecasts, currency, unit, and time conversions, word definitions, and more.
The main purpose of Google Search is to search for text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers, as opposed to other data, such as images or data contained in databases. It was originally developed in 1996 by Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Scott Hassan. In 2011, Google introduced "Google Voice Search" to search for spoken, rather than typed, words. In 2012, Google introduced a semantic search feature named Knowledge Graph.
Analysis of the frequency of search terms may indicate economic, social and health trends. Data about the frequency of use of search terms on Google can be openly inquired via Google Trends and have been shown to correlate with flu outbreaks and unemployment levels, and provide the information faster than traditional reporting methods and surveys. As of mid-2016, Google's search engine has begun to rely on deep neural networks.
