Google Speaks: Secrets of the World's Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page

3.2. NOT INVENTING, BUT IMPROVING UPON

Internet search was going on long before the Google boys attacked the problem of achieving meaningful results from searches. Although they didn't invent the concept of search, they vastly improved upon search techniques.

Susan Wojcicki, whose home served as Google's incubator, recalls many early discussions about search. "Not another but a better search engine," she said. "From the beginning they had a very clear vision that they could build something much better than what existed at the time."^[]

Google's Corporate Information Web page explains, "Where others accepted apparent speed limits imposed by search algorithms, Google wrote new algorithms that proved there were no limits. And Google continues to work on making it all go even faster."

Long before Google came along, newspapers, magazines, and newly established websites believed it was possible to reap rewards from Internet advertising. None were very good at it. Yet today, Google dominates that business. Google perfected an advertising concept developed by a company called GoTo.com, which later was renamed Overture and sold to Yahoo!. From e-mail to cell phone platforms, Google has a history of coming in late and making it better.

There are multiple examples of how Google either borrowed or bought concepts and made them better and more usable:

• The company acquired its hypnotic satellite-imagery application when it acquired Keyhole, the firm that developed the technology.

• In 2005, Google ...