Search Engine Optimization

Google is 10 as of September 7th, 2008.

An “out-of-the-garage” start up is now valued at $142 billions, standing next to HP and Bank of America. A true Silicon Valley story of 2 university students, who never thought of business, but happen to have interest in internet technology.

Back when Google was born, Sergey and Larry thought of selling technology and leaving it at that. Luckily for them, no one wanted it.

Soon Google found a way to monetize their technology with pay per click advertising, originally devised by Overture, now Yahoo Search Marketing. With help of Eric Schmidt and after 3 reincarnations of Google Adwords, they became billionaires and the fastest growing company in the world.

Don’t be Evil

Story goes according to Wikipedia:

On July 19, 2001, about a dozen early employees met to mull over the founders’ directive [to elucidate Google’s core values] … The meeting soon became cluttered with the kind of easy and safe corporate clichés that everyone can support, but that carry little impact: Treat Everyone with Respect, for example, or Be on Time for Meetings.

The engineers in the room were rolling their eyes. [Amit] Patel recalls: “Some of us were very anticorporate, and we didn’t like the idea of all these specific rules. And engineers in general like efficiency — there had to be a way to say all these things in one statement, as opposed to being so specific.”

That’s when Paul Buchheit, another engineer in the group, blurted out what would become the most important three words in Google’s corporate history. “Paul said, ‘All of these things can be covered by just saying, Don’t Be Evil,’” Patel recalls. “And it just kind of stuck.”

… In the months after the meeting, Patel scribbled “Don’t Be Evil” in the corner of every whiteboard in the company… The message spread, and it was embraced, especially by Page and Brin… “I think it’s much better than Be Good or something,” Page jokes. “When you are making decisions, it causes you to think. I think that’s good.”

Can a corporation not be evil? There’s a lot we don’t know, but it’s original. Better than, “Syndicating Search Mindshare” or similar mindless new-speak.

Google Acquisitions

Google scooped up a lot of companies on the way. Here’s the list.

Acquisitions

Google Stock

Google hit $700 at the end of 2007, but now is back to $450.

Happy Birthday to Google!