环球英语 Searching on Google
February 22, 2015
Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Mike Procter.
Voice 2
And I’m Robin Basselin. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand - no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
A few years ago, I googled my sister. I had not seen or heard from her for twenty years and I wanted to know where she was. So I turned on my computer, went to Google, and typed in her name.
In a second or two I had a list of places on the Internet where her name appears. One of them gave her e-mail address. I wrote to her, and she wrote back. Our e-mails broke twenty years of silence. What a joy to talk with her again!
Voice 2
Almost all computer users know Google. It is the world’s most successful ‘search engine’. A search engine is a service to help people find information on the Internet. Today’s Spotlight is on Google.
Voice 1
Google’s story began in 1995. Two university students in California thought of an idea. Their names were Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Their idea was a new way for search engines to work. The students took their idea to the existing search engine companies, but these companies rejected the idea. So the students began their own search engine company. They called it Google. The name seemed fun. But it also had another meaning. The word google means “a very large number.” And the Google search engine searches through a very large number of web pages.
Voice 2
Google began operating in 1998. The company became public in 2004. That means its worth is divided into many shares owned by many people. In less than two years the value of the shares increased four times, to $140,000,000,000. By 2012, Sergey Brin and Larry Page were very rich men. Each one was worth over $18,000,000,000.
Voice 1
Now, Google is not just a search engine. It has many other products too - including an email system, an internet browser, and a social network program. There are Google products for looking at maps, sharing pictures, and working on documents. People can use Google products for just about everything they do on the internet!
Voice 2
Google is a financial success. The company makes a good profit. And yet when people use Google products, they pay nothing. These products are free. How, then, does Google make money? The answer is on most pages of Google search results. There are some results called ‘Sponsored Links’. These results are there because someone is paying for them. They are a form of advertising. Google is careful to show the sponsored links separately from the normal results of the search. That way, we users can tell which is which. The sponsors are usually companies. They pay Google only when a user clicks on their sponsored link. Companies like this kind of advertising, because it is ‘targeted’ - that is, it reaches only people who are truly interested in what the company has to offer.
Voice 1
But Brin and Page were not interested in profit when they invented Google. In 1997, they wrote a paper. The paper explained how Google works. You can still find it on the Internet. It is interesting to read. It shows that they wanted to make a search engine that gave information freely and without restriction. And they wanted the search engine to offer users the best websites. It should not be possible for rich companies to influence the results of a search - to get their own web pages near the top of the list. Even now, Google’s normal results are not for sale. Companies can influence only the sponsored links.
Voice 2
For the normal results Brin and Page developed a method of judging web pages. The method decides which pages are the most useful to the person making the search. This is called ‘ranking’. Google’s ranking method uses a set of rules to make this judgement. A set of rules used in this way is called an ‘algorithm’. Older search engines used simple algorithms. For example, they counted the number of times the target word appeared on a web page. But the Google algorithm also looks at the links leading from one page to another on the Internet - the hyperlinks.
Voice 1
In effect, the algorithm says to itself, ‘If lots of other pages on the Internet link to this page, then this page is probably important’. The algorithm would link such a page near the top of its list. Algorithms like this use fixed mathematical rules to make the rankings. No human is involved. So Google believes that its ranking is fair. Google has a company saying. It hangs on a sign in their office. It says ‘Don’t be evil’.
Voice 2
As Google’s business has expanded, they have also had some problems. Some people say that the company does not follow its own saying. Experts have criticized Google’s privacy policies. They say that Google collects too much information about people. The Google search engines follow how a person uses the search program. This affects the search results. So one person may not see the same results as another person. This is true even if they search for the same things. Other experts criticize Google for working too much with governments. Google has been willing to control and block particular kinds of information in particular places. However, this has not stopped most people from using Google!
Voice 1
There is something that Brin and Page probably did not know when they invented Google. Their algorithm works a little like the way the human brain works. Our brain cells, our neurons, link to one another. Our thoughts and memories form by the way these millions of neurons link. When we learn, new links form between the neurons. Our strongest memories form where there are the most links. So you could say that the highest ranked pages in a Google search are like our strongest memories. Both depend on links.
Voice 2
So, nature had it first! There is a famous saying for situations like this, ‘There is nothing new under the sun’ [Ecclesiastes 1:9]. We find that saying in many languages because it is from the Bible. And the Bible would also agree with the Google company saying, ‘Don’t be evil’ [1 Peter 1:14].
Voice 1
Now there is something to consider the next time you use Google!
Voice 2
The writer of this program was Mike Procter. The producer was Rena Dam. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted and voiced by Spotlight. You can find our programs on the internet at http://www.radioenglish.net. This program is called ‘Searching on Google’.
Voice 1
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.
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