When Google first offered up its search results to the world there were countless search engines for people to choose from when they were first setting out exploring the Internet. Search engines like Lycos, Dogpile, Hotbot and the mighty Yahoo! were all vying for the first few members of a budding search market.
Google was just one of many players in the game, one of many websites that people hungry to find info were able to use, with Yahoo! leading the way. How did Google break into the pack, wrestle with the big names for a share of the search market, only to break free from the crowd and become the dominant force that it is today?
It’s actually very simple to explain. Google became the biggest search engine, and the first one hundred billion dollar company, by actually working. When people searched on Google for something, whether it was the lyrics to ‘killing me softly’ or for a window cleaner in Cheshire, Google invariably had the answer.
Contrast other search engines where the results offered were littered with rubbish like spam results, duplicate results and paid results. What’s the use searching for something only to be presented with adverts?
Google gave useful results to queries, prompting people to come back and use it again. So where Lycos and Hotbot failed, Google prospered, grew in size and wealth and became the behemoth that you now see.
You don’t ‘Lycos’ something, you Google it!
