Everybody knows google that started as a search engine and is now one of the biggest internet companies around. It even got a place in dictionary since googling is now a synonym for searching the internet. Here's my view if how it got this far.

It all started with a search engine, a pretty good one. It returned relevant search results, very fast and in a very basic interface (and that's pretty special if you compare it with other search engines from that time like yahoo and Altavista¹), I remember using Google when it didn't even had adds. Since it was so good many people started to use it, kept using it and spread the word. And there is the basis for a good advertising strategy: many pageviews.

Yes, they are here since internet became a common thing: adds. Those pop ups and banners, sometimes irrelevant and sometimes just messing up the lay-out but most of the time annoying. But not at Google: small blocks of text, a title, small description and a link. Styled like the website and placed aside so they don't jump out of the page. But they jump out at one point: they were relevant just like your search results so you didn't mind taking a look. (I have to mention here that I don't have an interest in buying some stuff on eBay, simply because it can't be sold). Because of the search engine Google knew what people are interested in, making it easier to find relevant advertisements.

The next step was to provide this advertising service to other siteowners, the result is a major expansion of the number of pageviews. And since the pages are scanned anyway the adds are adapted to the page and thus relevant. People click them so site owners want them and that's what makes it a success.

Meanwhile Google was making big profits, and had money to invest in other projects like buying a visitor counter. This service is now a standard if you have the Google adds on your site, giving you (and Google) more information about your visitors. This will give Google even more knowledge about the consumers scince by IP tracking they can find out: what you're searching for, which sites you visit, how long you stay on a particular site and which adds you click. It's just one large costumer review.

The goal of Google is to make as much information public as possible and it provides great tools to search this information. Meanwhile it collects huge amounts of consumer information and ensures it's position as advertiser and thus it's income. And we will love it.