The Internet is under attack by the Obama Administration through the executive branches. This does not bode well for Internet entrepreneurs or political discourse. The following is an analysis of how the Internet and specifically Google has created a free global social environment. The governments of the world should study the Internet Society. They could learn something.

Google is known as a search engine for relevant information on the Internet. There are other search engines or browsers such as Yahoo, Explorer, MSN Bing, etc. However, Google is more than just a browser.

Google has managed to lay the foundations of a solid natural and free social environment, a virtual society without geographical or language barriers.

In the name of justice, I am strongly biased towards individual liberty. I grew up under communism but, more importantly, I witnessed the transition from a free society to communism and the disappearance of freedom. The communist movement hoped that all the international masses would take power and become a great world communist system. If Google and the Internet had existed in those days, communism would have embraced it and perhaps learned something useful: the freedom of the masses can be very constructive. I wish today’s politicians would take a look and learn something from the environment that Google has created and is still nurturing.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google in January 1996 as a research project when they were both doctoral students at Stanford University in California. Originally, Google operated under the Stanford University website, with the domain google.stanford.edu.

The google.com domain was registered on September 15, 1997. The company was incorporated on September 4, 1998 in a friend’s garage in Menlo Park, California.

Google’s name comes from “Googol”. Googol refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. This is such a large number that it cannot be achieved if you count all the sand particles in the entire universe. It was supposed to mean an infinite number of people and their interactions with no end in sight. Google runs more than a million servers in data centers around the world and processes more than a billion search requests and twenty petabytes (1000 trillion) of user-generated data every day, which is an incredible achievement. Google started with just $100,000 from a private investor.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin had a vision and a dream with a purpose: to match the dreams and desires of other people, so that everyone can benefit. If a vendor had a good product or service, Google made it easy for the party looking for it to find it. A book author could publish and sell a book without going through a publisher. Google made it easy to promote the book. Talented people with a shoestring could start a home business overnight. There are billions of sites on the Internet with all kinds of information or products for sale. All such information has been published by individuals or companies with the expectation of being found and/or shared by interested parties or prospects. Google did not create the information; individuals and institutions did.

Google’s mission was to create the best possible presentation for any query. This is not a trivial task, certainly not on the Internet. Complex algorithms, as well as site ratings, are used to connect requests with delivery sites. Before Google existed, early browsers like Netscape, MS Explorer, Yahoo, and dozens of others used straightforward techniques to catalog words or phrases and associate them with relevant sites. However, when you are dealing with billions of sites and entries every day, it is very difficult to determine which site provides the best and most relevant information requested through a query. With Google’s browser, the successful result usually appears at the top of the first page among millions of posts that contain similar information. People very rarely looked beyond the first three pages.

Larry Page had an idea: To rate pages in order of importance and relevance, they would count the number of links to that particular site. The total number of links and where they came from was also important.

For example, if I were a small contractor designing home theaters and didn’t have the money to advertise my business, I would design a website with all sorts of instructions and drawings as a binder to help my prospects understand how I would implement a project. The site will look like a tutorial. The next step would be to contact some of the major distributors of home theater furniture, electronics, cables, etc. and ask them to link my educational site to theirs and offer it to their customers as an educational tool for a DIY project. All parties benefit. The same concept works when someone with expertise in a particular field posts useful information through a variety of ezines. The author’s link will point to her site and Google will index and rate it.

Google calls this new technology PageRank, where the relevance of a website is determined by the number of pages and the importance of those pages is linked to the original site.

Google obtained a patent describing its PageRank mechanism. The patent has been officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor. By 2006 the name “Google” had found its way into everyday language, causing the verb “Google” to be added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, denoted as “to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet.”

This feature was very important in the context of equal social opportunity because it allowed creativity to be distributed over the Internet at almost no cost to the creator. Before this technology was implemented, an Internet competitor had to spend a lot of money on advertising to promote their site. Otherwise, no one could find it. Search engines didn’t even index it.

Since 2006, Google has added a wide range of services and support capabilities, either through acquisitions or internal development. It is not my intention to do an exhaustive analysis of all its capabilities. I am going to summarize the most important features and free tools that Google provides to its subscribers.

Google and its function

Google has often been criticized for being too big and too dominant in the field of the Internet. Critics often fail to mention the valuable services that Google provides to both large and small businesses, as well as the individual entrepreneur. More importantly, it provides real value to end-user, potential consumer products and services advertised or promoted over the Internet.

Google makes its money by providing a solid platform for advertisers and a wide range of useful free advertising tools. Google does not advertise. Advertisers yes. This is a mutually beneficial relationship.

google advertising tools

google analytics allows website owners to track where and how people use their website with extensive research to get users where you want them to go. It is a very powerful tool that helps web designers correct and optimize how information is organized and presented to prospects by monitoring their behavior while visiting the site.

Google advertising It allows website owners to display these ads on their website and earn money every time the ads are clicked. Google automatically places only the ads that are relevant to the content on that page. If a visitor finds any of these ads interesting, they will click and the website owner will charge a small fee. I would like it to be mentioned that these ads are offered to advertisers for pennies.

Google Ads It helps advertisers to show their ads on the Google content network, either through a cost-per-click or cost-per-view scheme. This is a true advertising service with daily monitoring and budget control facilities. An advertiser can set up a series of ads associated with certain keywords and test their performance on a daily basis. It is interesting that Google uses a system of price offers. If you bid for a high ranking position on the top page and if your ad attracts more visitors than your competition next to you, Google will gradually reduce the cost of your ad. It is possible to rank very high on the page and pay less per click than everyone else below you. This encourages creativity and unique content which, in turn, will make your campaign more successful.

Keywords ServicesAll of the above services wouldn’t be very useful unless you have some means of selecting the right keyword and phrases that match what your prospective prospects are looking for. Remember, you respond to requests in writing. Google has an extensive support service that helps in selecting the right keywords as well as monitoring the number of links associated with your competition. These powerful tools allow you to determine both demand and competition based solely on keywords.

Other services like Gmail, Google News, Orkut and more have been added as time goes on. There are no limits to creativity in a free social environment like the one created by Google.

I’m not trying to downplay the contributions of other browsers like Yahoo and Explorer. This article is not really about Google as a browser. It is about the free international society that Google has helped create through access to knowledge and economic development.

Economic impact

The cost of operating a website could be as low as $5.00 per month. Blogs are free and can be used instead. The cost of entering an international business is very low. There are thousands of people who make a living selling books that are often not even their own. Rock bands can record and publish their music for free. I can go on and on. It’s all been made possible, to some degree, by Google through its affordable promotional capabilities.

Most importantly, Google has managed to create this social environment because there was no government oversight or regulation. The only self-monitoring policy deals with abuse of services such as spam. When the Chinese government tried to interfere with its operations, Google decided to leave China.

Conclution

Imagine a World Governance where all freedoms are assured: Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Association, Freedom of Commerce and Freedom of Exchange of Ideas and Opinions, (including politics). The Internet is just that, and Google is the enabler and ruler.

Don’t let the government take this away through some kind of regulation in the name of the “public good.”

Tr COJOC