‘Google it’ is so entrenched in our everyday vernacular, most have probably forgotten how we used to ‘Ask Jeeves’ to settle pop culture trivia or reveal the capital city of some obscure former Soviet state. But well before we had our own virtual valets there was Archie – before most even had computers in our households, let alone an internet connection.
The word’s first search engine was incredibly rudimentary. Introduced in 1990, Archie enabled users to search a site’s file directory, but rather than open specific webpages, files had to be downloaded to see what was inside. Searches also had to preferably be one word as natural language keywords weren’t yet a thing meaning a search for ‘Bill Murray’ would bring up surplus files on legal bills, utility bills and even duck bills (though there would be some overlap on the latter as the famously deadpan comedic actor is known for his Daffy Duck impression). By the mid-‘90s, we had far more efficient search engines such as Yahoo and Ask Jeeves (now just ask.com as Jeeves retired in 2005).
Just Google It
Though relatively late to the party, Google, developed by students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997, offered a service that its competitors did not. While search engines such as Yahoo or AOL ranked their results on how frequently a particular term appeared in their search content, Google’s algorithm could decipher which content was more useful with its users and push that further up the search results ensuring a more satisfying online experience.
Today, the competition’s not even close, with Google accounting for around 93% of the global search market. Each day each user averages more than 12 minutes (significantly longer than most people spend having sex, apparently) on what is the world’s most visited website, which handles around seven billion daily searches – more than 80,000 per second and a mind-bending more-than-2.5 trillion per year. Fitting, then, that the site was named after the googol, the name given to the number one followed by 100 zeros. When Page and Brin first founded the company out of their Stanford University accommodation, they famously maxed out their credit cards on discounted discs and built a server network from second-hand and loaned personal computers. Now the company’s worth north of US$1 trillion.
The Popular and the Puzzling
At the close of 2019, Google released its top searches for the previous decade with high-profile deaths like Robin Williams and Nelson Mandela; major sporting events such as the Olympics, title fights, and FIFA World Cups; fidget spinners; and Game of Thrones all placing high. Natural disasters and terrorism were Googled with depressing regularity, too.
The search engine’s most popular questions prove the same insecurities span borders and cultures, with ‘how to lose weight’, ‘how to draw’, and ‘how to kiss’ all regularly making the top 10. More practical queries include ‘what’s my IP’, ‘how to tie a tie’, and ‘what time is it’. More folk want to know when’s Mother’s Day rather than Father’s Day.
Others have wondered how many toes rhinoceros possess, how giraffes clean their ears and why ducks’ feet don’t stick to ice, and hopefully it’s not pilots who are asking if helicopters can fly upside down.
Unsurprisingly, ‘coronavirus’ dominated searches in 2020 in Aotearoa – and around the globe – along with the ‘US elections’ (even ahead of our own ones), recipes mostly involving flour, and ‘Zoom’. Donald Trump would no doubt be thoroughly unimpressed to learn that Kim Jong-Un shunted him into second place on the most Googled global figure list, joined by the likes of Elon Musk (6th), Joe Exotic (7th) and Kanye West (10th). Ashley Bloomfield was the third most searched-for Kiwi, after Hayley Holt and Israel Adesanya.
Kiwis were also pondering some of life’s big questions during lockdown, such as ‘why are people buying so much toilet paper’, ‘why is the sky blue’, and ‘why were cornflakes invented’. The answer to the latter? In the hope of preventing sinful thoughts and masturbation – seriously, Google it!
