Before Google came around, searching the Web was a hit-or-miss experience. Even the best search engines at the time weren't completely reliable. Yahoo! attempted to change Web searching by offering categories and manually-picked Web sites for their categories. Even today, Yahoo!'s method has its uses. However, it didn't solve the problem at hand, which would end up being a mammoth issue: How do you organize all of the information on the Internet?

The creators of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were more concerned with mapping the graphical link structure of the Web than with figuring out a better search mechanism. In their endeavors they found that seeing what linked back to a page was far more interesting than what that page linked to. This train of thought would eventually lead to the development of the utility that makes Google tick, PageRank. Simply put, they figured that Web sites were more valuable depending on how many people linked to them, and then they further weighed the value of those individual links.

This is not that different from the system of academic citation. You would want your paper cited often, and by the most prestigious sources possible. By valuing the worth of a Web site, Google was able to make their search results far more relevant than other search engines. You can read more about their origins in a recent Wired article-just Google "The Birth of Google." I'm certain that my use of Google as a verb just now didn't even feel unusual. The goal of any product is to become a household name, but to become a word of action is even more renowned.

This was just the beginning; as most of you probably know, Google didn't settle for search engine dominance. The company took to a strategy of finding the best products in various markets and making them better. This is a world apart from Microsoft's method, which involved buying out the best products and letting them stagnate, or Apple's, who trounced the competition with in-house software. Google's method is benevolent, whereas the others end up being destructive, insidious or both. Just take a look at Blogger (www.blogger.com), Picasa (www.picasa.com) and Google Earth (earth.google.com). Each application has seen considerable development and improvement since Google took over, and each application is also free. Blogger is one of the better blogging tools online, Picasa is perhaps the best photo management utility available, and Google Earth made the elite market of satellite viewing accessible to any common person. It is not surprising to learn that their corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil"-after all, we have no reason not to believe them.

Despite fostering these adopted services, Google hasn't lost the ability to innovate. Gmail, which launched in 2004, was an evolutionary leap light-years beyond other Web-based e-mail options. At its release Gmail offered 1GB of e-mail storage to its users when Hotmail only offered 2MB. Since then, Hotmail and Yahoo! have worked feverishly to keep up with Google's fresh competition by upgrading their storage limits to 250MB and 1GB, respectively.

With Gmail, Google proved that it wasn't content with simply meeting the standards set by others. It is a symbol that represents Google's unusually munificent corporate philosophy and attention to user satisfaction. It has been continually updated since its release, with a host of new features, many of which were user-requested. Gmail's even upgraded its ground-breaking storage availability to 2.5GB. At this rate, a Gmail account will most likely last you for life.

I highly recommend trying one of Google's many projects to experience their unique design philosophy. Start with Google Desktop 2, then Google Earth. Give Picasa a whirl. What you'll find is a singular commitment to quality in the computing world. Next time I'll discuss Nintendo's newly announced gyroscopic controller for the Nintendo Revolution and how it may finally bring them out of their slump. They promised us a revolution, but did they succeed?